


Blood Bound (2.0)

by toxzen



Category: Original Work
Genre: Boys Love - Freeform, F/F, Gay, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Supernatural - Freeform, Werewolf, vampire
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2019-10-15 03:59:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 44,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17521598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toxzen/pseuds/toxzen
Summary: Revamp (ahahahahahhahahaha) of Blood Bound





	1. Chapter 1

**** “Maybe next time, you don't open with your daddy issues?” Myrna said. She took a dainty sip of her vodka martini as she appraised Lucian over the rim with a bemused expression.

“I did not _open_ with the daddy issues,” Lucian grumbled. His eyes lingered on the backs of the departing pair that I had scared away. “They were mentioned briefly along the way.”

“Either way, didn’t really work out in your favor,” Myrna said. She slapped her hand on his shoulder and squeezed.

“No, it did not.” Lucian sighed and rotated on the bar stool so he was facing the counter.

“Oh, don’t go into a funk on me now,” Myrna said. Despite the throbbing music that pulsated through the club, neither of us had to raise our voices to be heard by each other. “We’re still gonna get you laid.” She wrapped her arm around his shoulders and gave him a sideways hug. “Maybe you can try…you know.” Myrna’s eyes sparkled in the oscillating colored lights.

“I don’t know,” Lucian said. “What if that just makes it all worse.”

“You won’t know if you don’t try,” Myrna pointed out. She pulled away from the hug and flipped her tight curls over her shoulder. “Wanna dance?”

“Nah, I’m gonna get some air.”

“Okay, you know where to find me.” Myrna downed the last of her drink and headed for the dance floor.

Lucian slipped through the crowd to the back exit. The bouncer let him out the door, but informed him he would have to come in through the front if he returned. Lucian simply nodded as he continued into the alley. He and Myrna bribed their way past the line to get into the club in the first place and he was well-within his means to do so again.

The heavy steel door closed behind Lucian, cutting off the thunderous music. He released a sigh of relief. While he quite enjoyed the overall fervor of clubs, sometimes they became too much to bare, especially the noise level paired with the sensitivity of his hearing. Lucian walked to the wall across the alley and dropped back against it. The night air was crisp, and infinitely more refreshing that the heady, cloying air in the club.

The sound of footsteps made Lucian glance around. A dark shadow moved down the alleyway toward him. An overhanging fire escape clinging to the wall overhead obscured his vision of the approaching figure, and a prickle of unease ran down his spine.

The person stepped forward into the moonlight. He was over six feet tall. His face was angled and framed by waves of messy, dark hair. His shoulders were broad and while his muscles could rival a body builder’s, he still looked lean and graceful. He was undeniably handsome and was without a shadow of a doubt a hundred percent Lucian type. Despite this, trepidation refused to release a hold on Lucian.

“Can I help you?" Lucian asked.

“Lucian Samirillian?” the man asked as he took another step forward. 

Lucian's nostrils flared slightly as the unmistakable scent of shifter met his senses. 

“That’s me,” Lucian said, folding his arms and adopting an air of indifference. “How'd you find me? Am I fitted with a tracking device?”

“That would have made things easier,” the shifter said. 

“Then how did you manage to find me?” Lucian asked. 

“Pryer had your father track your credit card,” the shifter explained. 

The expression of dismissive ease was driven completely from Lucian’s visage. His eyebrows furrowed and his eyes flashed with an incomprehensible emotion. The expression was gone in a moment and Lucian’s flippant disregard returned to his features. 

“Next time cash then,” he said.

“There won’t be a next, Lucian.” The voice that echoed down the alley carried a note of finality that offered no room to argue. 

“Hi, Morgan,” Lucian said with a sigh as he pushed away from the wall. 

Four shifters headed down the alley toward the shifter and Lucian. Morgan Fell, head of security at the academy the party, led the way. A step behind her with a downcast expression of remorse walked Myrna. A small thread of guilt at having forced Morgan to come along tugged at Lucian, but he ignored it.

“You’ve had your fun,” Morgan said. “Time to head back to the academy.”

* * *

Their means of return to the academy was a private jet, which was a lot more luxurious than even the first class flight Myrna and Lucian had taken to L.A.. Over the course of the journey to the airport, Lucian had learned the names of the shifters that had accompanied Morgan. Lionel, Holland, and Vanessa were all names he recognized as belonging to guardians on staff at the academy. The final shifter, the one Lucian had encountered in the alley, was named Callahan. He was new to the staff as far as Lucian was aware. Lucian would have enjoyed his presence, given how handsome he was, a lot more if he weren't an accomplice in getting him and Myrna caught. 

At that moment Morgan returned from the galley. She  had a cup of ramen in one hand a spork in the other and somehow looked none the less intimidating as she folded one leg over the other. She fixed Lucian with a penetrating stare. This was a gaze designed to make the receiver quail. Lucian certainly felt a flash of apprehension, but he choked the sensation down, keeping his expression shuttered.

“So," Morgan said, “would one of you care to explain to me why two noble vampires with subpar elemental powers and no bodyguards thought it would be a good idea to leave the safety of the Academy and go traipsing about a human bar?” Morgan quirked one of her perfectly manicured eyebrows.

Lucian glanced at Myrna. She was staring at her clasped hands. Her cheeks were flushed from the reprimand. She remained silent and Lucian looked back to Morgan.

“Well,” he said, draping his arms over the back of the couch, “I don’t know about Myrna, but I wanted to get fucked.” He spoke with callous indifference and held Morgan's unfalteringly.

“And you couldn’t have just done that at the academy?” Morgan said, unfazed.

“Oh, I could have,” Lucian said with a nod, “and I have, but I wanted the ambiance of a club: the lights, the music, the alcohol.”

“So, your excuse for your illicit escapade is your libido,” Morgan said flatly.

“That’s my excuse for most things,” Lucian said with a shrug. His eyes shifted from Morgan to Callahan. “I would have stuck around if I knew he was there.” His lips drew back in a sneer.

Callahan didn’t even twitch under his gaze or the lascivious words Lucian laid on him. Shifters were trained not to react to any remark a vampire threw at them unless it was a question or an order. Instead, he met Lucian's gaze with utter indifference.

“Lucian,” Morgan snapped, her voice cutting like a knife and laced with an authority even a vampire would have trouble ignoring.

And ignore it Lucian didn’t. He jumped and his head whipped around, eyes widening from the sharpness of the tone. He didn’t look affronted, instead stunned. He quickly schooled his features to neutrality, but he couldn’t control everything and a blush staining his cheeks gave away his embarrassment.

“This is _serious_ ,” Morgan said. “What if you two had encountered a sanguine? What would you have done? Seduced it into not killing you?”

Lucian had collected himself enough to be back to his usual flippantness and he leaned over to Myrna to whisper: “Do you think that would work?”

Myrna released a soft laugh and shook her head slightly. Lucian couldn’t be sure if the shake of her head was her way of answering his question or beseeching him to be quiet. 

Despite his quip, Lucian took the idea of encountering a sanguine seriously. Sanguines were vampires that had fallen completely and irrevocably into a blood frenzy. These frenzies reduced sangs to mindless, akin-to lifeless, creatures, constantly on the prowl for a source of blood. Since they consumed such a sickening amount of blood, they were stronger and faster than regular vampires. The gluttony also sapped them of just about every humanoid feature: their skin withered; they lost their hair; two extra rows of teeth grew in; and their limbs warped and elongated. They were terrifying to say the least and Lucian had firsthand experience with enduring the cold rush of fear that came with encountering one.

“The academy has a strict policy regarding leaving campus for a reason,” Morgan continued. "That reason is to ensure tour safety, which we can't do if you leave without  accompaniment. 

“With that being the case, perhaps you should invest in better perimeter security?” Lucian pointed out.

Vanessa bristled violently in her seat beside Callahan. Lucian had been able to sense her growing irritation throughout the flight, but this defamation of the academy’s security seemed to have put her over the edge if the expression of unadulterated anger she directed at Lucian was anything to go by.

“I have been in touch with your family, Myrna,” Morgan plowed on, ignoring Lucian’s jab at her inability to secure the Academy premises. “Your father has requested your return to Slovakia.”

“What?” Myrna gasped.

Lucian’s hands tightened on the back of the couch and flash of anger flickered across his face. 

“When we land at PDX, you will board a flight to London. Lionel will escort you. Your belongings are being gathered from the Academy and will be sent to Slovakia.”

“Is this a fucking joke?” Lucian hissed.

“No, Lucian, this is a consequence,” Morgan said.

* * *

**Two Weeks Later**

“Lucian.”

Lucian frowned. The library he was in was one of three on campus and the least used of any of them. Encountering anyone was highly unusual, which was why he had chosen this location for his solitary brooding. His gaze lifted from the book perched on his knees and he stared at the reflection the window pane offered him. As just a faceless shadow in the glass, Callahan struck a menacing form, and Lucian felt a small spike of discomfort from not being able to see his eyes. 

Lucian shifted on the windowsill he was perched in to stare at Callahan. His face always managed to sooth the lethality of his form. It was a downright gorgeous face and had a veneer of almost gentleness to it. Now was no different, despite Lucian downright glowering at him.

“Can I help you?” Lucian asked, his voice acidic. He by no means appreciated this interruption and Callahan ought to know as much.

Callahan walked slowly down the aisle between the shelves. 

“When was the last time you fed?” he asked as he came to a halt a mere pace away from Lucian.

Shock spasmed across Lucian's face. Asking a vampire about their feeding habits was certifiably rude. He had every reason to smack Callahan upside the head for that question. Unless he’d been raised in a barn, Callahan should have been well aware of this fact, and yet here he was not looking the least bit remorseful for uttering such an inquiry. Instead he simply stared down at Lucian with an unwavering gaze.

Lucian's eyes narrowed. Callahan couldn’t possibly have figured out the peculiarity surrounding his feeding tendencies. There were only a handful of people who were aware of his situation, and none of them were in the business of blabbing about it. Lucian gritted his teeth. Despite his assurances that Callahan couldn't know, the thought that someone had unearthed something about his feeding was unsettling to say the least. After another moment of composing himself, Lucian drew in a haughty breath and returned his gaze to the window.

“This morning,” he said.

A familiar scent bombarded his senses. His nostrils flared and his head whipped around once again. Callahan was staring down at his palm, which he had sliced open with the long, curved claw of his thumb. The claw retracted slowly into his thumb as blood bubbled up from the wound. He lifted his gaze to Lucian's face.

Lucian's mind went blank; his mouth watered. Warmth pooled in the back of his throat. A long, quaking gasp left his lips as his skin began to tingle. Callahan tilted his hand. A droplet of blood rolled down his palm.

“Son of a bitch,” Lucian whispered, his head dropping back sharply against the window. His face burned. The veins around his eyes had burst, decorating his pale skin with thin lines of red. A choking sensation was rising in his throat, paired with growing desperation. 

“You fed this morning?" Callahan said. "And yet you look like this." He gestured to Lucian.

“That has nothing to do with you," Lucian hissed as he slid out of the window sill. He would not stand Callahan looking down on him, and so he stood, though he was still a foot shorter than the shifter.  “And do you really want it to?” Lucian continued, voice coated in fury. “You let me feed from you, and you’ll be reduced to a blood bag.”

Callahan stiffened. His fists clenched, his fingertips digging into his wound and sending a new wave of the metallic aroma in the air. Lucian plowed on mercilessly.

“You want to follow in your mom’s footsteps, is that it?” he sneered. “Wanna be a cheap blood whore just like her?”

Callahan jerked forward, but quickly caught himself. Lucian didn't even flinch. Lucian was protected from harm by the thousand years of vampiric nobility flowing through his veins, and the fact he could probably take Callahan in a fight. 

Callahan's face shuddered with palpable anger. It took all of his control to keep the roiling bones and muscles in place. His eyes flashed a vibrant green. Despite his assurity that Callahan wouldn't harm him, Lucian did acknowledge that he had gone too far, way too far. 

"You're mistaken," Callahan said, as he pulled a roll of bandaging from his pocket. "I wasn't offering my blood to you. I simply wanted to prove my point." He wrapped his hand as he spoke, but kept his gaze rooted to Lucian's.

It was Lucia's turn to have his expression overcome with anger . Any regret regarding being too cruel with his words vanished immediately. His lips twitched as he tried to make another biting comment about Callahan's mother, but anger choked him, keeping him quiet.

Callahan turned on his heel and walking away between the shelves. Lucian watched him go until he turned out of sight. Lucian shook from head to toe, both from anger as well as the residual need to feed. He dropped back onto the window sill, his hands falling to his knees and gripping them together. Callahan had some nerve. Lucian had been holding it together for some time now, and yet that shifter had found necessity to put his carefully crafted control in jeopardy. Not only that, but he'd also took the opportunity to rub Lucia's short comings in his face, a fact Lucian would not be able to forgive him for anytime soon.


	2. Chapter 2

**** Following the incident in the library, Lucian found himself with the palpable desire to avoid Callahan at all costs. Unfortunately, Callahan’s schedule had been finalized at last and by some inconvenient twist of fate, he and Lucian's schedules overlapped quite a bit. Callahan took his meals in the dinning hall at the same time as Lucian and he was one of the supervisors in Lucian's elemental magic class.

Avoiding the dining hall and thus Callahan was simple enough. Not attending his magic class was not an option. Despite Lucian's complete lack of fire, water, or wind elemental power, a fact that was almost unheard of in vampires, he was still required to attend magic classes, to learn theory if nothing else. Lucian had already missed far too many classes despite the semester inky having just begun. He couldn't risk suspension or a deflation in his grades because he was avoiding a nosey shifter. 

With this being the case, Lucian found himself in uncomfortably close quarters with Callahan during these classes. Lucian's seat was in the back of the class with the line of shifters stationed directly behind him. There was no way of positioning himself such that he could watch Callahan without making it abundantly clear he was doing just that. Instead, he was trapped enduring the fact that Callahan very well could be staring at him at any given point during the class.

This has been the thought plaguing him throughout his magic class and he was decidedly on edge when he left it and headed for his final class of the day. Thankfully, this class was the self-defense course he'd enrolled in to meet his gym requirement. The physical exercise would help work out any and all of his anxiety surrounding Callahan. It was also the only course Lucian had where he interacted with shifters since several shifter students functioned as instructors. He much preferred their company to that of his classmates. They were still treated him with deference given he was a noble vampire, but at least they never tried to suck up to him.

Just as his hand rested on the door handle that would admit him into the gymnasium, the shrill screech of the academy alarm ripped through the air. Lucian started in shock. The horribly aggressive blaring continued with tenacity, but with the initial shock wearing off, his heart rate crept back to normal. He waited uneasily for the alarm to cut off, thus signaling there was just a routine safety drill to run. 

It didn’t stop; this wasn’t a drill. Somewhere on the campus were sanguines. 

The door before Lucian was shoved open and Lucian tripped backward to avoid being smacked in the face. Eric Holt, the main instructor for the class and one of the campus guardians, stood in the doorway.

“Lucian, there you," he said. “You’re the last one. You really have to get your tardiness in check.” 

Lucian wasn't entirely of the mind now was the best time to lecture him on punctuality. 

"Get in here," Holt continued, ushering him into the gymnasium. 

Lucian trudged across the mat-covered floor toward his vampiric peers. As he went, he cast a quick glance over to the shifters at the far side of the room. They were clustered together, speaking in low, urgent tones. They had their phones out, most likely going over the text reports that shifters would be getting regarding the situation. Lucian tossed himself down on the fringes of the group of his classmate. He followed the example of several of his peers and stuffed his fingers in his ears. Luckily the alarm would shut off in a few minutes once it had been thoroughly established this wasn’t a drill.

Holt took a quick roll call before instructing us to stay put. As he was giving this final order, the alarm cut out, letting his voice boom through the room at full force. Holt left the gymnasium. Completely disregarding Holt's final words, Lucian stood up and walked over to the group of shifters. One of them, who Lucian had oft paired up with for drills, noted his approach first. Luke grinned at him and waved.

“Hey, Lucian,” he said. His greeting cut off his peers and they all turned to look at Lucian.

"You guys know what's going?" Lucian asked.

"Vanessa's patrol got ambushed by some sangs on the edge of campus," Luke explained.

"Vanessa's patrol," Lucian said. "That's Lionel, Holland, and Callahan, right?"

"Yeah, how'd you...?" Luke's brows creased in confusion. It wasn't often vampires knew much of anything about shifter affairs.

"They were the squad that picked up me and Myrna in L.A.," Lucian explained. "They make out okay against the sangs?"

"Mm," Luke affirmed. "They neutralized the threat, but more patrols have been sent out ensure there are no others."

"No surprise they did," another shifter said. Lucian was fairly certain her name was Beth; he'd feel quite bad if it weren't, given they'd been in class together for a few months now. "Three guardians and Callahan could make short work of any sanguines."

"Callahan isn't a guardian?" Lucian asked.

“No, he’s in a weird limbo right now," Beth explained. "He’s finished up with school, but he still hasn’t taken the exam yet.”

“Doesn’t matter if he’s taken the exam yet,” Luke said. “He’s basically a god.”

“Geez, you really carry a torch for the guy,” Beth teased. Her fist shot out, aiming for the blond’s crotch, but he quickly dodged back.

“He’s a fucking beast,” Luke laughed.

“Luke’s not wrong,” another shifter said, joining in with the blond’s laughter. “Callahan could probably take a guardian in a fight.” 

“I wanna see him fight a vamp guardian,” Luke continued, a touch of awe in his voice.

Vampire guardians tended to incur such a response from others. They were as their title implied: vampires who had trained as guardians and had passed the exams. In most cases vampires were no match for shifters in a fight. This didn’t hold true for vampire guardians. They were trained just like guardians and had the added benefit if elemental magic. Because of this, they were the guardians for the rich or royal.

“He could last for a bit,” Beth said, “but even a guardian would be hard pressed to take a vamp guardian. The elemental magic is way too much of an advantage.”

The shifters debated amongst themselves for some time over Callahan’s odds in a fight against a vampire guardian. Lucian quickly lost interest in the theorizing. He wandered away from the shifters in the hopes a walk around would dissipate his residual anxiety for the lock down. He went to the far door of the gymnasium and pulled it open. The gymnasium lay within an L-shaped building that hugged one corner of the quad. It was easy to get lost in the maze of hallways that twined through the building. Wandering down them served to be a good way to defuse his nerves. 

His meanderings through the building came to a sudden halt, when a metallic scent washed over him. His nostrils pricked. He glanced around, taking stock of his location. He was in a back hallway near the infirmary. Blood was a common scent in this wing, but this blood Lucian recognized. This blood burned the back of his throat, mocking him.

A feral roar ripped through the hallway. Yelling filled the halls. Lucian took off down the hallway without a second thought and skidded around the corner. His eyes found him immediately. Callahan was roughed up, but he didn't look too worse for wear. His clothes were ripped and dirt-stained. His right arm was bandaged; the white linen blood-stained.

“Fuck,” Callahan yelled as he slammed a door shut.

The clash of metal rang through the hallway. Callahan whipped away from the containment cell door and paced across the hall. Vanessa and Lionel flanked the door. They watched Callahan’s pacing with drawn expressions. 

“Cal,” Vanessa said in a low voice, “it’s obvious he’s rabid.”

Callahan gritted his teeth as he came to a halt by the wall. He dropped his forehead against the white-washed wall.

“He was bit by a sang,” Lionel added.

“I could—“ Vanessa began.

“No.” Callahan’s voice was low, rough. It was clear he had yelled more than once this morning. “I was in charge of the patrol today; it's my responsibility.” His shoulders hunched in ever so slightly. He wasn’t a guardian, and he hadn’t been at the Academy for long. This was probably his first time giving orders to guardians, and  one of them had been bit by a sanguine. 

Shifters could go rabid for several reasons, and not always for the same reasons. What turned one shifter could be nothing but a mere annoyance to another. Almost all shifters went rabid when bit by a sanguine. Only one in a million could handle the venom of a sang's saliva. The rest w ent out of their minds as their bodies tried to fight off the poison. If the feral howl Lucian had heard was anything to go by, this shifter had done just that.

“Hey,” Lucian called as he waltzed down the hallway.

The shifters all spun around in surprise. They had been so caught up in theirlittle soap opera, they hadn’t noticed Lucian's arrival. He stopped a few paces away from them and glanced around at the trio.

“Lucian, what are you doing here?” Callahan asked. He stepped away from the wall and straightened a touch.

“I was taking a walk." Lucian shrugged.

“We’re dealing with something right now,” Vanessa said.  Her words were a clear dismissal, but Lucian ignored her. His eyes remained on Callahan. The wound on his arm was scabbed over, but Lucian could still smell his blood. He felt his cheeks flush slightly as the scent continued to pervade his senses, but he ignored it. 

“I can do it,” Lucian said in a low voice as he inclined his head toward the door.

“You..."

“I don’t know him,” Lucian continued. “It’ll be easier.”

“This has nothing to do with you, Lucian,” Vanessa said in a cold voice. 

Lucian turned his gaze on her and stared at her. He kept his face devoid of expression. Vanessa gritted her teeth as she maintained eye contact. Lucian could smell it on her; she was a beta. She could be cowed if he kept this up, but he wouldn't humiliate her like that. He looked back to Callahan.

"It'll be easier," he repeated.

“Lucian, I appreciate the offer, but I can handle this,” Callahan said. His eyes moved to the door and lingered on it. His jaw tightened.

“Who outranks whom?” Lucian asked, folding my arms. “A noble vampire or a shifter? I’m taking charge now, so it’s my responsibility.” He stepped forward.

“Luc—“ Callahan began, bracing his hand on the vampire's shoulder.

Lucian knocked Callahan's hand aside. His eyes flashed.

"Did I permit you to touch me?" he hissed.

Callahan lifted his hands in surrender.

"I'm sorry," he said, and he meant it. Touching a vampire, especially a noble, was out of line.

"He's not my friend, Callahan," Lucian continued. "Let me do this." Lucian might still be furious with Callahan for the library incident, but he wouldn't strip him of all his control in this matter in front of two guardians. So he gave Callahan the option to choose. 

Callahan stared down at him for a long moment before finally nodding. Lucian turned back to the door, and Lionel pulled it open for him. Lucian  stepped inside. The door clicked shut behind him. A muffled snarl drew his eyes to the center of the room. Holland was chained to the floor by his neck. His wrists were locked behind his back and his ankles were chained down as well. A muzzle concealed his lower face, which was elongated and covered in fur. Thick patches of the same dark fur littered his body.His yellow eyes watched Lucian intently.

Lucian could easily imagine the disgust and pain the other shifters must have felt when shackling their friend to the floor like a dog. He took a small steadying breath, and w alked slowly across the room. His footsteps echoed around the chamber. The shifter yanked against his chains as Lucian approached. Lucian crouched down in front of him and hooked his finger into one of the chain links attached to the muzzle. Holland barked a fierce snarl that the muzzle muted slightly. Lucian tilted his face back. Deranged eyes stared up at Lucian. Lucian  placed my hands on either side of his face. Another low snarl emanated from the muzzle. Lucian twisted his head to the side. A sharp crack resounded through the room. Holland's eyes rolled back in his skull.

Lucian rose and left the room. Lionel shut the door behind him once again. Vanessa was nowhere to be seen.

“Thank you,” Callahan said.

Lucian nodded and left.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the dynamic between callahan and lucian has been reworked substantially and i've also gone through and made the whole thing third person if you were up to date on chapter three before i'd recommend rereading what i've edited just to better understand things

Word soon got around that a shifter had gone rabid during the attack. There was the appropriate amount of condolences from the vampires, but they weren’t all that torn up over it. The shifters, on the other hand, were once again reminded that both their mortality and humanity were on the line when they served vampires. With it being the weekend, Lucian  had no way of knowing how Callahan was handling matters. He could only hope he wasn’t being too hard on himself. As long as Vaness and Lionel weren’t foisting blame on him, Callahan would be able to come to terms with what happened to Holland given a little time. However callous it might have been, shifters went rabid; it was one of their many unfortunate lots in life.

Saturday night Lucian spent catching up on work he should have completed weeks ago. He didn’t get done nearly as much as he needed to come the following evening, but even saw he attended Mass. Mass was by no means a mandatory school activity, nor was Lucian overly religious, but services were a great way to unwind from the week. It also helped that the academy’s new priest was, Lucian had no qualms with admitting, stupidly attractive.

Lucian never enjoyed arriving on time to Mass, given the enormous crowd that filled the steps leading up to the building. Instead, he opted to sleep an extra hour and arrive punctually at ten.  The extra hour of sleep didn’t amount to much, however, and Lucian was stifling a yawn when he pushed open one of the ornate oak doors a crack and slipped inside. Catching the edge of the door, he eased it shut almost silently. The two shifters who flanked the door noted Lucian's presence with a cursory glance, but he didn’t interrupt the service.

Lucian moved to one of the empty pews at the back and sat down. Settling back against the decidedly uncomfortable bench, Lucian turned his attention to Father Alistair’s service. The priest was only a few years Lucian's senior, and so, as far as was Lucian concerned, decidedly eligible, priesthood be damned. Lucian was’t the only one who felt this way. Alistair always had a whole gaggle of girls drooling after him post Mass, and Lucian knew of a couple guys in his dorm who had the hots for him too.

The service drew to a close about two hours later. Lucian remained seated as the majority of the congregation filed out of the church. He owed it to Alistair to stay later given his tardiness. He leaned his head back on the pew and stared at the artfully decorated ceiling. The love child of baroque and renaissance architecture, the arching ceiling was breathtakingly beautiful, if a bit extra in all honesty. This church, which had originally been built in Italy, had been painstakingly dismantled, shipped to America, and then reassembled in this swath of Oregon woods because the founder of St. Cypirian had had a raging hard-on for this church specifically and a replicate of it just wouldn’t cut it.

Perhaps thinking the words “raging hard-on” in a holy sanctuary summoned him to Lucian's side, but all of sudden Father Alistair was standing by his pew smiling warmly down at him. His sudden materialization made Lucian start and he flushed a bright pink.

“Hello, Lucian,” Alistair said.

He had somehow managed to extricate himself from the horde of girls who had cornered him after Mass. They were slowly making their way out of the chapel, and casting annoyed glances Lucian's way as they went as if he had purposefully stolen their eye-candy from them.

“Hi,” Lucian said. He scooted over a touch on the pew and Alistair sat down beside him.

“You arrived late, again,” Alistair said. He folded his hands neatly in his lap.

"I did, but I’m staying late to repent,” Lucian said.

"It's appreciated," Alistair said with a smile.  “How have you been, Lucian?” he asked. “I hear you’ve been a little tardy to your classes as well.” On top of being a priest, Alistair also held the role of being a guidance counselor should the need arise. Because of this, he was kept in the loop regarding any students who were struggling at school.

“I’m fine,” Lucian said. “Just really behind with work.”

“Are you not feeling well?” Alistair asked. He reached out and lay a cool hand on Lucian's forehead.

Lucian stiffened. He couldn't strike Alistair's hand aside like he could Callahan's, since the priest was both a vampire and akin to a teacher. Alistair did note Lucian's slight flinch though and he quickly removed his hand.

"I apologize," he murmured.

"Excuse me?"

Lucian started in surprise at the sound of Callahan's voice. He twisted around in the pew. The shifter stood a few paces away. He  was dressed in dark-washed jeans and a long sleeve shirt.

"Would I be able to borrow you for a moment, Lucian?” Callahan asked.

"If that's alright," Lucian said, looking to Alistair.

"Of course," the priest said. "I just wanted to touch base. Please remember: I'm always here if you want to talk more."

"Thanks, I appreciate that," Lucian said.

The pair rose and moved out of the pew. Alistair inclined his head to Lucian and Callahan.

"Have a good rest of your night," he said.

Callahan nodded and turned away. Lucian thanked the priest once more before following after Callahan. They left the church in silence. Callahan descended the shallow steps before stopping to turn back to face Lucian. Even with the added benefit of two steps, Lucian still wasn’t eye level with the shifter.

"I wanted to thank you again for what you did," Callahan said. "But I also wanted to ask...Why?"

“I told you," Lucian said. "He was your friend; you shouldn’t have to do that to your friend.”

"Vampires don't put down shifters," Callahan said.

"Vampires don't," Lucian said in a musing fashion. "Just shifters and guardians, isn't that so?"

"That's so," Callahan said. His brows furrowed. "So, why did you say you'd done it before?"

"Because I have," Lucian said.

"Wh--"

"Cal," Lucian said flatly, "my feeding habits weren't your business, and neither is my childhood."

"You're right," Callahan said without missing a beat. "I apologize. Thank you again for what you did. I've never--" The admission slipped out and he stopped himself before he could continue. His jaw muscles tightened as he clenched his teeth.

Lucian stared up at him. He was reminded, like he'd been in the infirmary, just how young and inexperienced Callahan was. He had only just graduated from an academy in New York, making him only a year or so Lucian’s senior. Yesterday had been the first patrol he'd been in charge of. Lucian wondered too if it had also been his first encounter with a sanguine. The shifters in Lucian's class had high praises to sing of Callahan. They had most likely seen him sparring, but practice matches and training were nothing comparable to encountering a sanguine in the flesh.

"The first time is the hardest," Lucian said. "After that, it doesn't get easier per say, it just gets normal."

“That’s…” Callahan began quietly.

“Awful? Yeah. It is.” Lucian moved down the steps, pausing for a moment beside Callahan. “Was there anything else?”

"No," Callahan said. "That was all. I apologize again for prodding."

"I'll see you later then," Lucian said and he walked away. Staying angry with someone as genuinely kind and sincere as Callahan was entirely impossible, Lucian was realizing. This fact made him feel all the worse for his comment about Callahan’s mother being a blood whore. Regardless of whether she was in fact once, Lucian had no right to weaponize that fact against Callahan. Despite his guilt for the comment, Lucian had no intention of apologizing. Apologizing meant giving ground, and Lucian on principle never gave an inch for fear of losing a mile.

Even though it was a Monday morning, one of Lucian’s classmates had taken it upon himself to throw a dorm party. Generally, Lucian found ample reason not to attend these, and Myrna would take it upon herself to drag him, sometimes quite literally, to them. Even halfway across the globe, Myrna was still quite good at convincing him to attend a social gathering.

She and Lucian had Skyped earlier in the night, the first time since she’d been shipped off to Slovakia. Lucian had asked after life in Bratislava, but Myrna was much more interested in hearing news from school. Her answers were quick, efficient, and didn’t speak to anything that needed further unpacking. Once that was out of the way, she turned to grilling Lucian on everything that had happened since her departure.

After some prodding--Myrna could always tell when Lucian was holding something back--he briefly described the encounter with Callahan in the library. Myrna had grown utterly irate that Callahan had been “such a colossal douche”. After her ranting had subsided, which Lucian quite enjoyed because it helped to justify the anger he’d felt towards Callahan, Lucian voiced his concern that it was becoming easily recognizable that he wasn't feeding well.

“Lu, you don’t look healthy,” Myrna had admitted to him with slight hesitance. “It doesn’t take much to figure out there’s something that matter. Some might chalk it up to stress or not eating food, but it wouldn’t be a stretch to guess it’s lack of blood.”

This comment didn’t sit well with Lucian and he was still dwelling on it upon reaching the party. He wasn’t one for socializing and, had she been here, Lucian would have just trailed after Myrna as she flitted from group to group to hi to people. Since he was on his own, however, he took up a perch in an armchair in the corner of the room with plastic cup filled with a positively disgusting mixed drink that his classmate had made for him.

Despite the the ungodly taste, Lucian still nursed the cup slowly as he stared off into space, his mind replaying Myrna’s admission. He had been fully aware that his physical health had taken a toll because of the lack of blood and evidence of this had taken shape in the form of paleness, gaunt cheeks, and dark-ringed eyes. Myrna was right that anyone could just assume this was indicative of other conditions. It was so out of the norm for a vampire to go without feeding that that would never be an initial assumption. Unfed vampires ran the risk of going into a frenzy, a state much like rabidity. Given that Callahan had figured out he was lacking in blood without his having to frenzy, perhaps he should take up the practice of wearing makeup everyday, and not just when he went to see his father. If he ever saw the true condition Lucian was in, Lord Samarillian would be more than capable of figuring out there was something amiss with Lucian's feeding.

Lucian sighed quietly, pulling his gaze from the depths of his cup and glancing around the dorm. It was packed with vampires, male and female, as well as shifters. When one of the guys in the dorm threw a party, he would invite everything with a pulse to the affair. These sort of throw-downs were designed with the sole purpose of getting as many people possible as drunk as possible. Lucian took another long sip of his gag-worthy drink. He was entirely on board with this plan. Getting stupidly drunk would help keep his mind off the stress of being unfed and Callahan knowing about this.

“Hey, Lucian.”

Lucian looked up at the sound of his name. Finny stood in front of him with a grin on his round, boyish face. He clutched a red solo cup between his hands as he fidgeted slightly. Even though Finny and Lucian lived on the same floor together, Finny was still incredibly shy around him. He was nervous by nature being on a first year, but he was exceptionally so around Lucian, given his status as a noble vampire.

“Hi Fin,” Lucian said with a smile. The nickname cued an expected flush from the younger vampire.

“Having fun?” Finny asked.

“Not really,” Lucian admitted. He brought his cup to his lips and downed the rest of the concoction before discarded the plastic vessel on the floor beside his chair..

“We could go up to my room and play video games?” Finny offered.

“Let’s,” Lucian said, “but I have to warn you I’m terrible at games.”

“I can teach you,” Finny said eagerly.

“You’ll have your work cut out for you,” Lucian said as he started across the room.

“Challenge accepted!” Finny hurried after him, a lopsided grin plastered across his face.

Lucian’s progress across the room was and unequivocally impeded by the sudden appearance of Roland Lain. He was flanked, as ever, by Hugh Meyers and Nick Deveron. Roland was the only one of the three with a hint of nobility in his blood, but since they all came from obscenely rich families, they acted like they were God’s gifts to the world. Lucian didn’t have enough fingers or toes even to count the number of times he had spurned the three’s advances.

“Lucian,” Roland practically purred. “So glad you could make it.”

“You say that like you’re the host,” Lucian muttered as he folded his arms.

“He’s not, but I am,” Hugh piped up with a grin.

“If only I’d known,” Lucian said with a sigh. Even Myrna’s persistence wouldn’t have gotten him to arrive at the party if he’d known it was happening in Hugh’s room. Myrna had made mention that the party was being hosted by Brandon, and Lucian realized now that that was most likely Hugh’s roommate.

“Hey, it’s a little loud in here,” Roland said with cordial smile that honestly did not coexist well with the fact that he was a renowned sleaze. “Let’s go somewhere a little quieter.” He glanced over Lucian’s shoulder at Finny and flashed him that belying smile. “You can come too if you like.”

“That’d be nice,” Finny babbled excitedly. He didn’t share Lucian’s experience with Roland, and on top of that he was utterly overjoyed at the prospect of hanging out with so many upperclassmen.

“I’d really rather gargle nails,” Lucian said under his breath.

Roland didn’t hear him. Instead he reached out to place a hand on Lucian’s arm. A cutting glare from the noble and most likely a flashback to the last time Roland had touched Lucian--which ended in a trip to the infirmary--stopped Roland’s reaching hand. Instead he simply gestured for the pair to follow.

Lucian did so with a aggrieved sigh. He wouldn’t have, had it not been for the warm thrum of alcohol in his veins, as well as the concern for crushing Finny’s excitement, which was painted openly across his face.

Roland led the group down the short hall that stood off of the common room and into one of the bedrooms. The scent that lingered in the room was unmistakably Hugh’s, and it appeared he enjoyed living in an absolute pigsty. Much to Lucian’s shock, he found an occupant in the room among the mess.

“Um, what the fuck?” Lucian asked blandly as he gestured to the human sitting at the desk.

“This is Mark,” Nick explained as he crossed the room to Mark’s side.

The human smiled blearily up at Nick. He was built like a bodybuilder and had a strong, chiseled face. There wasn’t a single glint of intelligence in his eyes. Lucian couldn’t be entirely certain if this was because he was doped out of his mind with the drugs feeders were fed, or if he’d been born stupid. Nick leaned back against the desk and rested a hand on Mark’s shoulder.

“He’s Hugh’s personal feeder,” he continued.

“Only the best for me,” Hugh said with a laugh as he tossed himself on his bed.

“You can try him if you like,” Roland said.

Lucian’s gaze slid to the side and met Finny’s confused expression. Lucian was glad he wasn’t the only one completely taken aback by this situation, which was amounting to be a much sweatier and more hormonal version of one of the many feeding parties Lucian had been subjected to growing up.

“You know,” Lucian said with a slow, purposeful nod as he looked back to Roland, “I think I’m good, but thank you for such a tempting offer.”

“Come on, Lu,” Nick drawled. “Imbibe with us.” He slid his fingers slowly down Mark’s jugular and the human smiled dazedly at the sensation.

“I’m really good,” Lucian said.

“The school doesn’t provide the best feeders,” Hugh said from the bed, “and you’ve been looking a little gaunt lately.”

Panic flashed across Lucian’s face for a finite millisecond. He immediately tamped down on the expression, his jaw clenching as he did so. First Callahan, and now these halfwits; at this rate everyone on campus would figure out Lucian wasn’t properly fed.

“Let us give you a treat,” Nick said, holding his hand out to me.

It was either the tipsiness, or the desperation to rectify the situation, but Lucian took Nick’s hand against his better judgement. Touching Nick wasn’t high on the list of things he wanted to do, but he wouldn’t have closed the gap between him and Mark without prompting. Nick tugged him forward until Lucian was standing a mere few inches from Mark.

The human smiled up at him invitingly. He tilted his head to the side, baring his neck. It was customary to take from the wrist from school feeders, but when it came to personal feeders, one could feed from whatever point they desired. Lucian swallowed his apprehension as he braced his knee on the chair between Mark’s legs. He freed his hand from Nick’s and placed them both on the feeder’s shoulders. Lucian leaned forward until his lips were ghosting over Mark’s neck.

“Go on, Lu,” Hugh said. “He won’t bite.”

Lucian flipped him off over his shoulder and clamped his fangs down on Mark’s neck. Mark released a soft sigh that ruffled Lucian’s hair as the vampire drew in a mouthful of blood. The taste was utterly and unquestionably disgusting. Lucian’s body convulsed as the first droplets met his tongue and his grip tightened on Mark’s shoulders. Tears pricked his eyes at the putrid taste. It took everything in his power to swallow down the malignant liquid. He shuddered as it slid viscously down his throat.

“Good, isn’t it?” Hugh said, mistaking Lucian’s tremble for one of rapture.

Lucian couldn’t flip him off again since he was using clinging to Mark’s shoulders like a lifeline. He downed a few more mouthfuls and the tears threatened to spill over. Any more of this and Lucian was going to be projectile vomiting all over Mark.

Suddenly a pair of hands clamped onto Lucian’s waist. He jerked back, anger contorting his face.

“What the f--“ he began, but was promptly cut off by a pair of fangs burying into the side of his neck.

Lucian cried out from a mixture of pain and shock. Nick’s hands tightened on his waist and he had the absolute gall to moan as Lucian’s blood slid into his mouth.

“Son of bitch,” Lucian hissed, and he slammed the heel of his hand into Nick’s forehead.

Nick grunted in pain and stumbled back. Lucian spun around, drew his fist back, and drove it full force into Nick’s chest. Nick flew across the room, crashing into the television with a loud crash. He slumped to the floor.

“What the fuck?” Hugh yelled, jumping off the bed.

“You stupid fuck,” Lucian snarled as he started toward Nick. As far as Lucian was concerned, Nick didn’t need to be conscious to have his ass kicked, and he very much wasn’t.

“Whoa, h-hold up,” Roland stammered as he moved to stand between Lucian and an unmoving Nick. “He didn’t mean anything by it okay; we just wanted to have some fun.”

“What’s so fucking fun about taking a chunk out of my neck? That’s what you fucking have Mark for.” Lucian brandished a hand back at the feeder who was utterly unfazed by the quarrel ensuing around him.

“Look, we’re sorry,” Hugh said earnestly. “Nick just really wanted a taste of your blood, okay?”

“Okay?” Lucian hissed, cutting his gaze over his shoulder at Hugh. “Not fucking okay. I hope he fucking enjoyed it because if he touches me again, I’m killing him. Got it?”

“Y-yeah, sorry,” Roland stuttered.

Lucian stalked across the room to where Finny stood just inside the doorway. His face was blanketed in utter shock. Lucian rested a hand on his arm and pushed him light toward the door.

“Let’s get out of here,” he murmured.

Finny nodded hurriedly and the pair left the room. Finny called after him as he hurried after the older vampire, but Lucian plowed on without acknowledging hi. He led the way down the hall and cut quickly through the common room, elbowing a few party goers out of his way as he went.

“Lu, wait up,” Finny said as they exited the room. He grabbed Lucian’s wrist and tugged lightly.

Lucian halted and cut his gaze toward him. He tried not to glare at him, but his anger hadn’t entirely abated yet.

“Are you okay?” Finny. He reached up with a bundle of napkins he’d procured somewhere along the line and pressed them lightly to Lucian’s neck. “I’m sorry. I saw Nick approaching, but I didn’t—I didn’t know what he was doing. I…”

“It’s cool, Fin,” Lucian  said. It wasn’t Finny’s job to make sure Lucian kept his wits about him when in a room with three guys who’d been trying to sleep with him since first year. “Shit like that happens.” The sad thing was Lucian wasn’t just saying that to appease Finny’s anxiety. This was far from the first time he’d been conned into being fed on. Though the other times had occurred somewhat by his own volition.

“Want me to walk you back to your room?” Finny offered. “We can save video games for another night.

“Thanks,” Lucian said with a smile.

Their ascent to the top floor wasn’t as accelerated as the escape from Hugh’s room. Talking with Finny had helped reduce some of the anger and adrenaline that had flooded Lucian’s system. Now, however, Lucian was left with nothing to distract from the fact that he was mere minutes from puking his guts out. Drinking human blood hadn’t always left him in such state. He’d gone the first sixteen years of his life feeding on humans, but once he’d gotten a taste for something else, his palate had become decidedly exclusive. Lucian still had no knowledge how feeding on a shifter would turn out. He didn’t have any shifters of his own, like his father did, so he didn’t have the opportunity to feed from one. Feeding off a shifter that wasn’t one’s collar or guardian generally demoted that shifter to nothing more than a blood bag. Lucian had no intention of being the reason a shifter was slandered like that.

When they reached the top floor of the dorm, Finny hovered around Lucian anxiously, questioning if he needed anything. Lucian waved him off, claiming he would be fine. Finny took his word for it, and said he was going to go find his friend Ian to game with.

As soon as Finny was gone from the floor, Lucian made a beeline for the bathroom. Once he had emptied the contents of his stomach, he made his wobbly way to the counter and braced himself against it. Throwing up in a state of absolute outrage was not how he’d envisioned his night ending, and yet here he was. Between the nausea, the alcohol that still lingered in his veins, and the wound in his neck, his head was starting to swim unpleasantly. Lucan retrieved a bandage and an antiseptic wipe from the cabinet by the sink and set to work dressing the wound on his neck.

Having taken care of that, he was able at long last to retire to his bed. Sheer relief filled him to such an extent he almost cried. Lucian shoved his face into his pillow in a desperate attempt to keep that from happening. Nick had gotten enough out of him already tonight; he didn’t deserve tears on top of everything else.

  



	4. Chapter 4

The next night found Lucian waking with a pounding headache, as well as with the sudden realization that he hadn’t set a single alarm and had thus missed his first few periods. Lucian groaned quietly as he sat up, rubbing the fists into his eyes. His neck twinged painfully, a rude reminder of Nick feeding from him. Vampire bites were among the hardest wounds for vampires to heal, and he’d have to spend the next few days in turtlenecks to keep the injury hidden.

After dressing in one such garment, Lucian headed to the bathroom to scrub out the lingering taste of Mark’s blood. He returned to his room to collect his bag, filling it with what he’d need for his afternoon classes before exiting the dormitory. The moon was at its apex, and he crossed the quad under a blanket of silver light. Upon reaching the dining hall, he mounted the shallow steps. The door swung open as he approached it and a pair of girls exited, chatting animatedly with each other.

They fell silent when they caught sight of Lucian and cast him furtive glances as he passed them. As soon as they were beyond him, they broke out in fervent whispers. Lucian frowned as he headed down the corridor toward the dining hall. He wasn't generally the subject of school gossip, preferring instead to keep a low profile. The most he was known for was his caper off campus with Myrna, but that had happened about a month ago.

As he entered the dining hall, he turned his attention to the rather daunting task of finding a place to sit in the crowded room. The hall was a massive, opulent space that boasted ebony columns carved with intricate nature designs. Mirrors decorating the walls created the illusion that it was even larger than it actually was. It was filled almost to capacity with vampires and shifters alike. The midnight lunch block was the most populated one, and Lucian was entering in the middle of it.

Lucian crossed the room between the rows of tables, heading for the serving area that lay in the room parallel to the dining hall. As he moved, he left hushed conversations in his wake, a fact that was decidedly unsettling.

“Hey, Lucian.” The sound of the greeting brought Lucian to a halt and he glanced over his shoulder. A vampire he didn’t recognize was grinning up at Lucian from his seat at one of his tables. His gaggle of friends looked on with eager anticipation. The vampire rose from his chair and crossed the short distance between himself and Lucian.

“I hear, “ he said slowly, “you let someone drink your blood. “

Lucian’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly, but he kept his face entirely placid. The vampire reached out to catch hold of Lucian’s turtleneck, but Lucian’s hand shot out and he snatched his wrist. His hold was tight enough to make the vampire gasp in quiet pain.

“Touch me and die,” Lucian hissed.

“Don't be like that; I just want a taste.”

“Request denied,” Lucian snapped.

Lucian stalked past the vampire, tossing his gaze around the dining hall. His eyes latched onto Nick almost immediately. He was sitting a few tables away with Roland and Hugh. Nick and Hugh were snickering together as they glanced in Lucian’s direction. Roland at least had the good grace, and self preservation, to look uncomfortable. A low growl roiled in the back of Lucian’s throat as he stormed across the dining hall.

“Nick,” he snapped as he approached the waste of oxygen.

Nick looked up at him, a shit-eating grin plastered across his face.

“Hey, sweetie, “ he said.

Lucian’s hand clapped down on his shoulder. Nick’s eyes widened, but before he could say anything in protest, Lucian lifted him bodily out of the chair and hurled him across the room. Nick yelled in surprise, a sound that was drowned out by the crash of shattering glass as he slammed into the mirror.

“Holy fuck! “ Hugh shouted.

Nick jerked away from the wall and stumbled forward.

“Bitch,“ he growled, though the word didn't carry much weight given that the wind had been knocked from his lungs.

Lucian shot toward him, driving his fist toward his stomach. Nick managed to block the blow, but the next one Lucian sent toward the side of his skull he couldn't deflect. The blow sent him to his knees. Lucian tangled my hand into his hair slammed his face onto the floor. Blood sputtered from his crushed nose and Nick gagged. Lucian crouched beside him.

“I hope I tasted good cause you're fucking dead, Nick,” Lucian hissed in his ear.

“Lu, stop, please, “ Roland beseeched, but Lucian only yanked Nick back by his hair and made to drive him into the floor again.

Suddenly an arm snaked around Lucian’s own and yanked him back. Lucian snarled; pain shot through his shoulder as it was threatened with dislocation. Lucian released Nick instinctively. A hand braced against his back and he was hoisted to his feet. Lucian twisted around in his assailant’s grip and found Vanessa glowering down at him.

“Enough, Lucian,” she said flatly.

Lucian’s jaw clenched as he stared at her for long moment. He didn’t doubt he could take her in a fight. He’d beaten guardians before--it was what he’d been trained for--but he couldn’t risk losing in front of half the school. Nor did he wish to humiliate Vanessa.

“I’m done,” he said, raising his hands as best he could given her hold on him.

“Oh, I know you are,” Vanessa said. “Let’s take a lap, hot stuff.” She released Lucian and pushed him away from Nick. She kept a hand on the small of his back as the pair crossed the dining hall.

As he retraced his steps toward the exit of the dining hall, Lucian’s gaze fell on the guy who had first approached him. A fearful ﬂinch ﬂickered over his face when his eyes met Lucian’s and he looked away from hurriedly. Lucian smirked slightly. It was utterly appalling for a vampire to be fed, unless it was by someone they were intimately involved with, and even then it was kept under wraps. The fact that this rumor had spread like wildfire through the campus didn’t surprise Lucian at all, but obliterating Nick in the way he had would keep everyone’s mouths shut from here on out.

Vanessa and Lucian soon reached the door of the dining hall. A ﬂicker of approaching movement drew Lucian’s attention to the side. Callahan was moving toward them. He quickly looked Lucian up and down, his face painted with concern despite having witnessed a thoroughly one sided brawl. Lucian frowned. He was a touch peeved that Callahan considered he even had the right to be concerned for him.

“I can take him from here, Ness,” Callahan said as he reached the pair.

“All yours, “ Vanessa said, dropping her hand from Lucian’s back.

“I don't need to be taken to time out,“ Lucian said through gritted teeth as he stalked out of the room.

Given that Callahan’s stride was about twice as long as Lucian, it was easy for the shifter to catch up with him.  

“No one's taking you to time out, Lucian,“ Callahan said as he fell into step beside him, “but you are bleeding.”

“What?” Lucian glanced down at his hands in confusion, but found his knuckles in tact.

“Your neck, “ Callahan explained. He moved across the hallway to the bathroom door and held it open for Lucian. “I can smell the blood on you,” he added as he glanced back at Lucian.

With the adrenaline dying down in Lucian’s veins, he was able to take better stock of his situation, and he found that Callahan was indeed right in saying the scent of blood clung to him. Lucian walked into the bathroom and headed to the sink. He leaned against the counter as he pulled back his turtleneck to reveal the bloodied bandages. Lucian sighed in quiet annoyance.

“Here,” Callahan said as he fetched a spare bandage from his pocket.

“Thanks,” Lucian said. He peeled back the soiled bandage and tossed it in the trash before slapping on the fresh one.

“That guy, “ Callahan said as he leaned back against the counter, “he bit you?“

“Good sleuthing, detective,” Lucian said under his breath. He folded his arms and turned to face Callahan, bracing his hip against the counter.

“Did you consent to it?” Callahan asked quietly.

Lucian glanced down at the floor between them, a flush rising to his cheeks.

“No,” he said in a low voice. “It happened at the party last night. I went to Hugh’s room with Roland, Nick, and Finny. Hugh’s feeder was there and they offered him up to me. Apparently you aren’t the only one catching on to things.”

Callahan nodded slowly, but he didn’t interrupt, instead letting Lucian continue to tell however much of story he’d like.

“Nick snuck up on me and took a bite,” Lucian continued. “Punched him the face for it and tossed his ass into the TV, but apparently that didn’t get the full message across.” His nose wrinkled in annoyance and he hooked a lock of hair behind his ear.

“You can always make a formal complaint,” Callahan said. “He would be removed from all of your classes.”

“Not now,” Lucian said, shaking his head. “Now it just looks like I tried to murder him without provocation.”

“You can try to explain things to the headmistress; I’m sure she’d--”

“Cal, can we not talk about it,” Lucian snapped. He opened his mouth to say more, but paused to collect himself. Callahan didn’t deserve the open hostility in his voice, not when he was genuinely trying to help. Lucian sighed and continued in a much quieter voice.  “I just want this all to die down. I’ll get a slap on the wrist for beating Nick’s ass; hopefully he won’t bother me; and we can all just move on.”

“Alright, we won’t talk about that,” Callahan said with a nod. “Are you feeling alright from having fed last night?”

“I threw up, but I’m fine now,” Lucian said with a shrug.

“You’re not always going to be fine, Lucian,” Callahan said, his voice gentle.

“I am aware of that.” Lucian’s voice was devoid of his usual biting tone, instead carrying a note of exhaustion. “I’ve been dealing with this for two years. I have contingencies in place.”

“Mind if I ask what those are?”

“I do,” Lucian said.

Callahan inclined his head in acknowledgement.

“I can feed on myself,” Lucian continued, despite his flippant response, “if it gets bad. It tricks me into thinking I’ve really fed.” He kept his gaze downcast as he spoke. He didn’t quite know why he was admitting so much to Callahan, but it felt like a relief to do so.

“There are other options,” Callahan said.

“And you don’t think I haven't considered them?” Lucian said. Disdain slid into his tone and he lifted his gaze to glare sharply up at Callahan.

“I assume you have, so I’m curious: why haven’t you collared a shifter?”

“Maybe because I find the practice utterly barbaric,” Lucian snapped, taking a step forward and lifting his chin so he was fully scowling up at Callahan.

“There is going to come a point where feeding on yourself isn’t going to sustain you,” Callahan said. “You need another option.”

“You think I don’t know that,” Lucian hissed. “I have been dealing with this for two _years_ , Cal. You really think in that time it hasn’t once occurred to me I run the risk of going into a frenzy. Believe me, I am well aware of the possibility.” 

“You might be able to find a shifter who would be willing even uncollared,” Callahan said. His voice was ever at an even keel; his logic infallible; and these facts were beyond infuriating to Lucian. His level headedness just served to exaggerate how borderline unreasonable Lucian seemed with his impetuous responses.

“Unless you’re willing,” Lucian said, “then I’m not having this conversation with you.”

“Fair enough,” Callahan said with a nod.

Lucian opened his mouth to speak, but the sharp ring of his phone cut him off. He pulled it out, turning slightly away from Callahan to peer down at the screen. The text was an automated message from the headmistress’s office, requesting he go there immediately.

“Fuck,” Lucian muttered.

“Everything alright?”

“Just that slap of the wrist I was talking about,” Lucian said with a sigh, sliding his phone into his back pocket.

Callahan was about to reply when his own phone chimed as well. He fished it out and glanced down at the screen. A frown creased his face.

“Looks like I’m needed there as well,” he said. He pocketed his phone once more and looked up at Lucian. “Shall we?”

“If we have to,” Lucian muttered and he led the way out of the bathroom.

They left the dining hall side by side. Lucian didn’t comment on this, though he was keenly aware of the fact. Most shifters, as a sign of deference, would walk a pace or two behind a vampire. It was usually only guardians who walked side-by-side with vampires. Despite his not being full guardian, Callahan seemed of the mind that he could walk beside Lucian. Lucian wouldn’t make mention of this. Asking Callahan to walk behind him would prove to the shifter that Lucian didn’t consider him an equal, and Lucian did consider him as such. If he didn’t view everyone an equal, then he’d write them off as not being a threat to him. It was a much better practice he’d come to find to view everyone, equally, as a threat.

“So, how long have you been training?” Callahan asked conversationally as they made their way across the quad.

“You’re very nosey, you know that, right?” Lucian said.

“You’re very interesting, you know that, right?” Callahan countered with a shrug and small smile.

Lucian didn’t respond, and Callahan didn’t push the subject.  

Upon reaching the administrative building, Callahan moved ahead to hold the door open for Lucian. Lucian nodded politely as he passed him, though he kept his eyes ahead. The entry hall they entered was sparsely decorated, only boasting a plush carpet and a few portraits on the walls. The thin, decorative columns drew the eye down the room to the staircase that ascended to a landing before branching to the left and right. At the top of the landing were a set of doors. Lucian headed to them.

Callahan once again opened the door for him, and Lucian once again only acknowledged this fact with a slight inclination of his head. The door issued into a long hall that ended with a reception desk and a pair of couches flanking the hall. A door stood to the right of desk, barring access to the headmistress’s office.

A young vampire sat behind the reception desk. She was flipping idly through a magazine when the door opened, but looked up with an automatic smile as Lucian and Callahan moved down the hall.

“Lucian and Callahan, thank you for coming," the woman said. "You can have a seat. I’ll let Ms. Pryer know you’re here.”

Lucian dropped onto one of the couches and watched as Callahan took a seat on the opposite one. Callahan kept his eyes on the receptionist as she buzzed the headmistress, but Lucian’s gaze was remained rooted on the shifter. Callahan wasn’t the only curious one. After the conversation in the bathroom, Lucian was once again left wondering why Callahan was so interested in the fact he hadn’t fed. Lucian couldn’t bring himself to buy the idea that Callahan was just doing his duty as a member of the academy’s security. That was too simple a reason and lacked a selfish motivation. Lucian didn’t trust anyone who purported they weren’t acting with their own self interest in mind.

Callahan, sensing Lucian’s gaze, slid his eyes over to the vampire. He raised his brows, inviting Lucian to address whatever was on his mind, but Lucian only continued to stare silently, holding Callahan's gaze without blinking. Callahan shifted on the couch, but not out of discomfort, instead angling his body so he was facing Lucian entirely. He was taking Lucian’s staring as a challenge and he was happy to reciprocate.

At that the moment Pryer’s office door opened and the pair simultaneously looked up at as Eve Pryer stepped into the hall. It would be bad form to be caught by the headmistress having a stare-off.

“Lucian, Callahan, come in,” Pryer said with a smile. The expression was warm, inviting, but by no means detracted from Pryer’s intimidating presence. The right half of her face was swathed in a leather mask. Rumor had it a sanguine had bit a chunk out of her cheek. Her remaining visible eye was also a blood-red, which was rare despite how human fantasies depicted vampires. Her frosty white locks matched the pallor of her skin and were pulled back in a loose braid that snaked down her back to her waist.

“Together?” Lucian asked in confusion.

“Yes,” Pryer said simply.

Lucian gritted his teeth as he rose to his feet. He didn’t much like the prospect of being chewed out in front of Callahan. He also didn’t understand why Pryer would have reason to address them together.

Pryer turned away and headed back into her office, rightfully expecting them to follow without further question. Lucian headed in first, with Callahan on his heels. Pryer’s office was much like the rest of the building: designed and decorated with efficacy in mind. A sturdy wooden desk stood in the middle of the room, a leather bound armchair behind it. Two more armchairs stood before the desk.

“Take a seat,” Pryer said as she sat down behind the desk.

Lucian and Callahan did so. Callahan sat straight-backed and attentive, his hands clasped loosely on his lap. Lucian meanwhile relaxed back in his chair, resting his temple against his first two knuckles.

“To begin with, Lucian, what exactly was that tantrum in the dining hall about?”

“Nick got on my nerves,” Lucian said.

Pryer gazed at him for a long moment. She was fully aware there was more to it than that. Pryer was, after all, an empath. Empathic abilities varied from reading thoughts to controlling emotions, and anything and everything in between. Pryer was the type to read and control emotions. She hardly ever used the latter ability unless a student needed to be brought down from a panic. Being able to read emotions made her highly intuitive and she could always tell when Lucian was fibbing to her. She never called him on it, instead allowing him function within the realm of whatever fabrication in created. If he wanted the matter with Nick to simply be that he'd gotten on Lucian's nerves, Pryer would respect that.

“You will attend remedial classes with Mr. Welks following your last period of the day for the next two weeks,” the headmistress explained. “Details regarding time and place have been emailed to you. You will also be charged for the broken mirror; an invoice will be sent to you.”

Lucian gritted his teeth, though his lip did curl in annoyance. He could care less about the remedial classes, but the mirror would most likely be a blow to his savings, one he couldn’t readily afford.

“To the matter of why you’re both here,” Pryer continued glancing between the pair. “Lucian, your father has requested your presence at an event this weekend at Lord Blight’s estate in Colorado. Callahan, you will function as Lucian’s bodyguard for the duration of the event.”

“No thanks,” Lucian said flatly.

Pryer raised a perfectly manicured brow. Lucian felt Callahan swivel his gaze over to him, but Lucian continued to stare placidly at the headmistress.

“That wasn’t a request from me,” Pryer said.

“If it’s my security, then I make the requests,” Lucian replied.

“I’m sorry, Lucian,” Pryer said in a soft voice. “This request is from your father. He asked that we provide you with the best security we have to offer.”

Lucian’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly, but beyond that he kept his expression neutral. Pryer understood he had a convoluted relationship with his father; though he found the memories exceptionally embarrassing, he had more than once lost his cool in her office over a request from his father.

“The best the academy has to offer?” Lucian said. He turned to Callahan and lifted his brows. “Do consider that an accurate descriptor for you?”

Callahan sighed quietly. He was doing an awfully good job of hiding it, but in that moment Lucian saw just how annoyed he was about being in the middle of this.

“Lucian,” Pryer said sternly, “please refrain from putting Callahan on the spot like that. Morgan determined he was the best choice given how the guardians already have assignments.”

A small glower crossed Lucian’s face as he returned his gaze to meet Pryer’s lone eye.

“I apologize if this isn’t the ideal situation for you, Lucian,” Pryer continued in a softer voice.

“But my father has your hands tied?” Lucian supplied.

“Yes,” Pryer said simply. She was by no means bothered by admitting that she couldn’t go against Lord Samarillian.

“Fine,” Lucian said with a shake of his head. “I’ll take Callahan with me.”

“Very good. You will leave Friday evening at seven PM. Your father is going to send a car. You are already excused from your classes that night.” Pryer looked to Callahan next. “Morgan will email you with regards to the details of your duties for the weekend.”

“Thank you,” Callahan said.

“Lucian, might I also advise you change your hair color back to natural?” Pryer said.

“You might,” Lucian said simply. “Is that all?” 

“Yes,” the headmistress said with a nod. She rose to her feet; Lucian and Callahan followed suit.

Before anyone could speak further, Lucian’s phone gave a shrill chime.

“Excuse me,” he murmured hurriedly as he pulled out the device. “I have to take this.” Lucian turned and moved to the door as he answered the phone. “Father,” he greeted brightly as he exited Pryer’s office.

“Lucian, did Pryer inform you of the weekend plans?” his father asked, not standing on the ceremony of a greeting.

“She just did,” Lucian said as he meandered down the hall away from the office. “Seven PM pick up on Friday.”

“Yes,” Lord Samarillian said. "Dinner will be Saturday at eight AM. You will arrive around eleven PM.”

“Understood,” Lucian said. He pushed through the door at the end of the hall and made his way down the steps. “Am I expected at lunch?”

“No, you may rest in your room before dinner,” his father said.

“Alright, thank you,” Lucian said, keeping his voice chipper and excited. “I’ll see you Friday.”

“Yes, until then,” Lord Samarillian said and he hung up without further notice.

Lucian sighed heavily as he slid his phone into his back pocket. He had three days to fix his hair; three days to steel himself for seeing his father again. He had been home over the summer, an utterly dreadful experience, though it had been nice to see Merrix and Ethan. Two months back at school, however, wasn't quite enough time for the bad taste of being home to leave his mouth.

“Lucian?”

Lucian turned around at the sound of Callahan’s voice and found the shifter descending the stairs from Pryer’s office.

“You alright?” Callahan asked with a small frown.

Lucian gazed up at him for a long moment. The last person he wanted to spend one of Blight’s parties with was Callahan. The shifter was far to curious of Lucian for his own good, and Blight parties had the tendency to bring things to light that were better left well enough alone. The thought made his nose crinkle and he spun on his heel, leaving Callahan without an answer.


	5. Chapter 5

Lucian stared blankly at his hair as it fluttered lightly in the breeze of the blow dryer. The warmth was leaving him with a sense of calm and running his fingers through his hair helped as well. Over the last three days he’d managed to strip out the mousy brown dye he’d slapped over his locks. Now his hair shone like the starlight the Samarillian line was renowned for. He still had a small headache behind his eyes from the scent of the chemicals he’d bombarded his hair with, but the process had paid off; his father would have most likely had an aneurysm if he’d seen Lucian’s hair dyed. He’d done so when he’d return to school from some break, just to spite Roland who’d said his hair was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

A soft knock on the door of the bathroom drew Lucian from his thoughts. He glanced over to the door as he powered off the hair drying.

“Yes?” he called.

“We should be going in the next fifteen minutes,” Callahan said from beyond the door.

“I’ll be out in just a minute,” Lucian replied. He turned the blow dryer on and flipped his head down to blow the back of his hair for a moment. Tossing his head back he blasted the front from a brief moment before turning it off again.

He was dressed already in a pair of obscenely tight pants, a high-necked, ruffled dress shirt, and a blazer, and his makeup was applied as well. Lastly, he pulled his high heels off the counter and slipped his feet into them. He paced the bathroom quickly to reacquaint himself with the shoes before heading out into the living room.

Callahan was standing in the middle of the room, his back to Lucian as he gazed out the large bay windows overlooking the dense forest that surrounded Blight’s mansion. Snow blanketed the evergreens and sunlight glared off of it. The glass of the windows were UV ray protected for the sake of vampires, but it did little to defend against the blinding light.

Callahan turned away from the window as he heard Lucian enter the room. His gaze flickered quickly over Lucian’s form. His expression didn’t change until his eyes met Lucian and he gave him a small smile.

“You look nice,” he said. The kindest, least lecherous compliment Lucian had ever received, a fact that had him flushing deeply.

“I know,” he replied flatly and he headed to the door. He heard Callahan release a small huff that sounded almost like a laugh. 

Lucian would have returned the compliment if he hadn’t felt like that would compromise him in some way. He always felt strangely vulnerable complimenting another on their appearance, as if the fact he thought someone looked nice could be used against him.

Lucian led the way out of the guest room and down the hallway, retracing the path he and Callahan had been led down by the butler earlier that night. Lucian’s gaze was downcast as he walked. His thoughts had shifted to the upcoming evening and a somber expression spread over his face. Blight’s parties were far from paragons of propriety. In fact they often bordered on despicable.

With a quiet sigh to steel himself, Lucian rounded the final corner, which issued him out at the top of the entry hall stairs. He lifted his gaze and his eyes immediately found a pair of ice blue ones.

His father stood at the foot of the staircase, looking up at him. Lord Samarillian’s face was aggressively chiseled and, as was typical when faced with his son, twisted with an annoyed scowl. His arms were folded over his broad chest and his foot tapped an impatient rhythm on the carpeted. His hair, which matched Lucian’s in hue now that Lucian had fixed his, was slicked back from his face, though unlike Lucian’s, it cut off abruptly at his chin.

Lord Samarillian’s guardian stood behind the noble. Ethan’s gaze had been flitting around the room to register any potential threats. Upon sensing movement at the top of the stairs, he’d looked up. He gave a small smile in greeting of Lucian, but, and Ethan never would have expected different, Lucian didn’t acknowledge anyone other than his father.

“Father, it’s so good to see you,” Lucian said as he descended the steps with a delicate hand on the rail. “I’m not late, am I?” He knew for a fact he wasn’t. He’d asked Callahan to keep him on schedule for an early arrival at the dinner party. All the same, he couldn’t resist the urge to point out the fact that his father’s impatience was misplaced.

“Right on time,” Lord Samarillian said with a nod. His gaze moved to Callahan and gave the shifter a quick once over. “Your shifter for the evening?” he asked Lucian.

“This is Callahan,” Lucian supplied, though he knew full well his father cared not for Callahan’s name.

“You’ll be on your best behavior tonight?” his father said.

“Always.”

Lord Samarillian nodded before turning away without further ado. He headed toward the banquet hall that lay off the entry hall, Ethan close on his heels. Lucian and Callahan followed suit. A handful of other guests were entering the packed hall as well. The thrum of conversation filled the air; the room was already crowded with guests milling about between the standing tables.

“We will go see Aleksei first then you may socialize as you see fit,” Lord Samarillian explained as he led the way through the crowd.

Lucian followed without comment. They found the host at the opposite end of the banquet hall, standing beside one of the high tables. Aleksei Blight’s last name was a little on the nose considering he was a genuine cancer to society. His nephew on the other hand was quite kind despite being related to a man who should have been thrown in a cell to rot several decades. Mikhael was nowhere to be seen, however. This surprised Lucian, given Mikhael very rarely separated from his uncle at these events. With Mikhael missing in action so too was Blight's primary shifter guardian, a fact that had nausea twisting Lucian's stomach. He knew all too well the sort of relationship Samson had with Mikhael. He could only hope that the pair were off paying their respects to other guests and not somewhere private.

With Samson attending to Mikhael in some sense of the word, Blight was instead being watched by his vampire guardian. Eden's face was as gaunt and sallow as ever. His sunken silver eyes rested on the ornate carpet. His hair was a dark black and fell to his chin. Dark tattoos spiraled around his neck, coalescing in the form of the Blight family crest. He was dressed in dark pants and a blazer. As the Samarillians approached, he glanced up and his gaze immediately found Lucian's. His expression didn't change as he stared at the other vampire with empty eyes. Lucian looked away. He’d grown up with Eden; spent the first thirteen years of his life in constant companionship with the other vampire. That had changed when Lucian had begun attending school, and Lucian had only seen him during his breaks. They had remained close in some sense despite not spending every day together. Their dynamic had changed utterly and irrevocably when Eden had become Blight’s guardian. They had never spoken about it, so Lucian didn’t fully understand how Eden felt, but he always got the sense that Eden blamed him in a way, for whatever reason, for his being sold to Blight.

Though his thoughts were in a bit of a chaotic jumble between Eden and Mikhael, he kept his expression schooled to politeness as he and his father approached Blight. The royal waved away the couple he was speaking to upon seeing the Samarillians and smiled broadly at them.

“Good morning, Adler,” he greeted. He held out his hand for Lord Samarillian, who took it in a firm grip. “Thank you so much for coming.”

“Our pleasure,” Lord Samarillian said.

He spoke strictly for himself in this regard, but Lucian didn’t mention as much. He smiled politely as he took Blight’s proffered hand.

“And you, Lucian, you look as gorgeous as ever,” Blight said. “How is school?”

“It’s going quite well, thank you for asking,” Lucian said in honeyed tones.

“I’m glad to hear it,” Blight said. “Your father and I have much discuss; how ‘bout you go find Mikhael and keep him company?”

Lucian nodded and left the pair to their own devices. The quick dismissal was a blessing; often he had to make small talk with hosts for much longer than that. Lucian made his way slowly through the crowd with Callahan close on his heels. He kept an eye out for Mikhael in the hopes that he was simply socializing somewhere away from his uncle, but he wasn’t so lucky.

Several times along the way through the room, Lucian was waylaid by other partygoers wishing to extend a greeting to him. Lucian by no means suffered under the disillusion that the vampires were making nice with him because he was anyone other than his father’s son. All the same he remained cordial, and when he was asked, he always promised he’d pass well wishes on to his father.

When Lucian at long last extricated himself from Lord Faryn, who had taken the liberty of placing his hand on Lucian’s back and letting it inch ever lower as they chatted, he made a beeline for one of the banquet hall’s exit. Enroute to the door, he blatantly ignored a couple approaching him, but he couldn’t be brought to care much.

Upon exiting the hall, he continued down the corridor and rounded the bend. He paused to take a steadying breath, resting a hand on the wall. It had taken every ounce of his not inconsiderable self control to keep himself from breaking Faryn’s arm. At school he was fully within his right to remove an unwanted touch from his person perpetrated by a peer, but at a party like this he had no such liberties.

“Lucian,” Callahan said hesitantly, “are you alright?”

Lucian straightened his shoulders, dropped his hand to his side, and turned slightly to look up at Callahan. He kept his face neutral as he locked eyes with the shifter. Callahan was gazing at him with palpable concern.

“Fine,” Lucian said.

“Should I have done something?” Callahan asked. His voice was small and uncertain and Lucian hated that he was the cause for Callahan sounding like that.

“Absolutely not,” Lucian said flatly. “You do not intervene in any way, unless I explicitly tell you to.”

Callahan nodded, but the clench of his jaw suggested he didn’t like the answer. Lucian didn’t like it either, but with Callahan being contracted with the academy, Lucian couldn’t give him such liberties. If Callahan had been his guardian, he could have intervened on Lucian’s behalf. However, since he was on the academy staff, he could only protect Lucian from a blatant threat such as a sang attack.

The sound of approaching footsteps drew the pair's attention back the way they’d come. A young vampire rounded the corner. He was dressed in the livery of one of Blight’s servants. He paused upon seeing them and quickly ducked his head in deference to Lucian.

“Lord Blight has requested your presence at tonight’s entertainment,” the boy said. He kept his gaze averted from Lucian’s as he spoke.

Lucian gazed at the boy for a long moment, debating whether or not to inform him that he’d come down with food poisoning and wouldn’t be able to attend. His father would read him the riot act if he pulled a stunt like that, so with a long suffering sigh he finally nodded.

“Lead the way,” he murmured.

The servant nodded and stepped around the pair. He headed down the hall away from the banquet hall. Lucian and Callahan followed after him. Behind them, the banquet hall was emptying out as the other guests made their way to the site of the night’s entertainment. Lucian had had the express displeasure of attending one of Blight’s parties before. He and his father had spent that morning as well in the comforts of Blight’s private viewing chamber and Lucian didn’t doubt that the vampire was taking them there once again.

Lucian was proven right a few moments later when they rounded another corner and he spotted a set of doors he recognized from the other party a few years ago. The servant headed to the doors and held one open.

“Thank you,” Lucian said absentmindedly as he entered the room.

It was already occupied by Blight and Lucian’s father. Mikhael was present as well. He was standing beside his uncle, watching him with an expression of reverence the man was by no means deserving of. He turned as the door opened and flashed Lucian a grin. Lucian nodded in greeting. With Mikhael present, so was Blight’s shifter guardian, a fact Lucian was keenly aware of since he could sense Samson’s gaze on him from where he flanked the door. Beside him, leaning back against the wall and staring at nothing, was Eden.

Lucian crossed the small room to his father’s side. His presence earned only a brief glance from the pair as they continued talking in low voices. Lucian gazed over the rail that cordoned off the viewing from the training yard beyond.

The night’s entertainment was already underway even though the space surrounding the yard was still filling with vampires. A pair of shifters were squaring off in the center of the yard. They were of equal height and muscle mass. One of them sported a collar. The pair surged at each other. The collar sent a blow for the other’s gut, but the guardian dodged. They circled each other slowly until the guardian lunged forward. He managed to slip under the other’s guard and grapple him. A cheer broke out over the arena has the fight was brought to the ground. The pair scuffled in the dirt for several minutes. At one point, the collar had an opening to take the upperhand, but he passed up the opportunity, and a moment later the guardian was victorious.

“How’ve you been, Lu?” Mikhael’s voice just beside him made Lucian start slightly.

He glanced around to find Mikhael smiling cheerfully at him. Mikhael at some point had made his way over to his side, but Lucian had been too absorbed in the fight to notice.

“Fine,” Lucian said.

“You haven’t been answering my texts.” Mikhael pouted at him and the expression earned an eye roll from Lucian.

“Of course not,” he said. “You’ve been sexting me.”

Mikhael laughed as he dropped his head onto Lucian’s shoulder.

“I’ve been lonely,” Mikhael said in his defense.

“Mm-hm,” Lucian hummed through pursed lips. Lucian wanted to do just about anything other than talk about Mikhael’s sex life. He hated having to tiptoe around certain aspects of it that he had the express discomfort of knowing all about, considering he’d walked in on it at the last Blight party.  

“Any plans for the post graduation life?” Mikhael asked.

“You know the plan,” Lucian muttered.

“That’s right; Lucian, you’re graduating next year,” Blight said.

“I am, yes,” Lucian said as he looked over at the royal.

“Your intent is still to have him become a guardian?” Blight asked as he looked back at Lord Samarillian.

Lucian stiffened. He glanced over his shoulder to where Callahan stood beside Ethan at the door of the booth. Callahan frowned ever so slightly in confusion, but other than that he made no reaction to Blight’s words. Lucian swallowed down his apprehension and returned his gaze to Blight. He and his father barely ever spoke of what was considered an undisputed fact regarding his life: post graduation he would become a guardian for the highest bidding vampire royal. It was what he’d been training for since he was six; it was what made Mikhael’s query so unnecessary. Mikhael was well aware of Lucian’s fate to become a guardian, given how close his uncle and Lucian’s father were.

“Of course,” Lord Samarillian said. “I haven’t invested so much into him for him not to be.”

“That being said, he’s in no way proved his worth,” Blight said. “How are we to know what we’re bidding on if we’ve never seen him action.”

Lucian knew he’d regret it, but all the same he looked back to Blight, who met his gaze with the a positively lecherous sneer. Lucian forcibly resisted the urge to reflect his feeling of disgust in his expression. Instead, his gaze flickered to the less threatening Blight. Mikhael was watching him as well. There was something like sympathy in his eyes, and suddenly that was much worse than Blight’s look and Lucian took to staring at the floor.

“What do you have in mind, Aleksei?” Lucian’s father asked with a sigh, entirely uninterested in humoring Blight’s beating around the bush.

“Put him in the ring,” Mikhael piped up, and his words earned a smile from Blight. Blight himself was not in the position, even as a royal, to be so presumptuous as to suggest a noble vampire be tossed into a gladiator fight. Mikhael, on the other hand, could cite rambunctious youth for suggesting something so absurd. “That’s the best way to put him to the test,” Mikhael continued.

“Mikhael’s right,” Blight waid. “We would be able to judge his worth if we saw him fight.”

“If it would serve to assuage any doubts regarding his capabilities, by all means,” Lord Samarillian said with nod.

Blight grinned at the acquiescence. He moved across the room and rang a bell on the wall of the private viewing room, indicating that he would put forth the next bout of entertainment. Lucian gritted his teeth as he glared at Mikhael.

“Thought of this idea yourself?” Lucian muttered.

“Of course,” Mikhael said with a light chuckle. “I’m curious to see you perform. As it stands, you look like little more than a cock sleeve for old men.”

“Takes one to know one,” Lucian couldn’t help but mutter. He regretted it immediately, but Mikhael took the comment in stride as he did everything.

“Touche,” he laughed, his grin unfaltering. 

“Samson,” Blight said, turning to his guardian who flanked the door opposite Callahan. “Fetch Tristan. He can serve as Lucian’s opponent.”

Samson nodded and left the room to find one of Blight’s many collared shifters. Lord Samarillian turned to his son and inclined his head toward the ring.

Lucian sighed and moved to Callahan’s side. He braced a hand against the wall as he bent to slide off his heels.

“Are you seriously going to fight?” Callahan murmured, confusion lacing his tone.

“I have to,” Lucian said, picking up his shoes and holding them out for Callahan to take. “How else can I prove myself a good purchase?” He carded his fingers through this hair and took to braiding the locks together.

“Even against a collared shifter, you--”

“Catch up, Cal,” Lucian said in a biting voice. “I was trained to be a guardian. They could put a full-fledged guardian in the ring and I could still hold my own. That’s the whole _point_ of the last thirteen years.” He fished a hair tie out of his pocket and finished off the braid, tossing it back over his shoulder.

“Why--” Callahan began.

“You can ask all your prying questions later,” Lucian said. “For now, just know I’ll be fine.” He placed a hand on Callahan’s arm. “That being said if I do get beaten to a pulp, don’t come rushing to my defense.” As far as Lucian was concerned, Callahan should never have to set foot in a gladiator ring, even if it was come to Lucian’s defense.

Callahan gazed down at him for a moment longer before finally nodding. Lucian turned away and padded barefoot across the room.

“Got your shifter’s blessing?” Mikhael asked.

Lucian ignored the comment in favor of moving to the rail and hopping lightly over it. A murmur rippled through the crowd at the sight of a young vampire noble entering the ring. Before Lucian could move further in, his father caught his elbow and pulled him back.

“Do not lose control out there,” Lord Samarillian hissed in his ear.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Lucian muttered. He resisted the urge to rench his arm free.

His father released him and Lucian walked away into the center of the courtyard. He stretched his arms lazily as he walked, keeping his gaze on the hard packed dirt beneath his bare feet. The last time he’d sparred had been over the summer against Merrix. He’d bested the collared shifter in the first round, but only barely. In the second Merrix had managed to grapple him to the ground. Given Lucian’s considerably smaller size with comparison to Merrix, he hadn’t been able to break free of the grapple and Ethan had called it Merrix’s victory. Between then and now, Lucian had done some weight training on his own time, but he hadn’t had the chance to spar. Hopefully he wouldn’t be too rusty. The last thing he needed was to fail miserably in front of a whole crowd of gaping onlookers, and Callahan, and his father. The former would simply be embarrassing to fail in front after he’d talked a big game. Failing in front of his father--that was just asking for hell on earth.

At that moment, Tristan appeared at the side of the yard in the break in the opening. He was about Samson’s height, who stood beside him, though not nearly as built. He was handsome in a soft, unassuming way. Confusion was etched across his face as he caught sight of Lucian. Samson gave him a small push and he stumbled forward into the yard.

Lucian’s jaw tightened. Tristan was not the sort of opponent that should meet him in the ring. In fact, he was rather insulted that Blight had even put him forth. Tristan was hesitant as he moved across the yard. Nothing about his mannerisms spoke to being a threat and the softness of his muscle tone suggested he hadn’t been keeping up with training. Lucian supposed he didn’t need to given he was one of Blight’s collars, and the royal kept them around for one thing only.

Tristan came to a halt in front of Lucian. He took a deep, collecting breath as he raised his gaze to meet the vampire’s. Lucian stared back at him. Tristan wasn’t going to stand a chance. If he had received any training, it had ended years ago and couldn’t possibly be anywhere as grueling as what Lucian had endured. Either Blight meant this as an insult, or he had thoroughly and utterly underestimated Lucian’s abilities.

“Sorry about this,” Lucian said.

“Don’t patronize me,” Tristan shot back.

“Understood,” Lucian said. If Tristan didn’t want Lucian to take it easy on him, then he wouldn’t. He’d finish this in three minutes and then he would turn his attention to Blight.

Lucian had to hand it to Tristan; the fight lasted closer to five. Lucian was rusty, more so than he’d expected; that much was apparent when he stumbled on his first sidestep. Lucian gritted his teeth as he ducked under another of Tristan’s swings. Tristan was giving it his all. Lucian let him go at it, instead doing little more than duck and weave his way out of Tristan's reach. This helped to warm up his muscles. 

Lucian’s arm shot up, blocking Tristan’s descending blow. Surprise flashed across Tristan at the fact Lucian was engaging him, but that didn't stop him from sending a jab at Lucian's side. Lucian caught his wrist and yanked him forward. The shifter stumbled and Lucian struck him squarely in the face with a headbutt. Tristan gasped in pain. Lucian shoved him back. He rushed forward, spun into the air, and slammed his barefoot into Tristan’s chest with all his might.

Tristan flew through the air for almost a full two seconds before slamming into the rail that surrounded the yard. He dropped forward onto his hands and knees. His entire body shuddered; his chest heaved as he tried to recapture the air that had been knocked from his lungs.

The crowd roared, thoroughly entertained by the sight of Lucian’s pint-sized self sending a shifter clean across the yard. Lucian started forward to finish the job, but Tristan instead dropped onto his hip, holding out his hand. Lucian nodded and turned toward his father and Blight.

A groan ran through the crowd at the abrupt, disappointing end to the fight. Lucian ignored them as he walked purposefully across the yard. He was pleased to see that Blight looked a touch annoyed by how swiftly Lucian had dispatched of his collar.

“Satisfied, Lord Blight?” Lucian said as he braced his hands against the railing.

“Not nearly,” Blight said with a smile. “Can I have him for another round, Adler?” He glanced to Lord Samarillian, who merely nodded.

“If you give me another collar, I’m going to be offended, my lord.” Lucian meant every word, but he kept his voice coy.

“Would Samson suffice?” Lord Blight asked.

“He would,” Lucian said with a biting smile. It was almost embarrassing how easy it was getting Blight to play directly into his hand, but then again, Blight didn’t even realize Lucian was playing.

Blight nodded and turned to his guardian, who had returned to the booth during the fight. Samson grinned and moved away from the door. Eden watched him go. His gaze slid to Lucian's and a strange, cryptic frown curled his lips. Lucian’s father didn’t protest the development, though his face clearly spoke to his desire to do so. Lucian ignored his father's glare in favor of turning on his heel and marching back into the center of the yard. A hush of anticipation fell over the crowd followed by a roar of excitement, undoubtedly due to Samson’s following Lucian into the yard. Lucian took a deep breath and turned to face down against the guardian.


	6. Chapter 6

In physical appearance, Lucian Samarillian was not what Callahan had initially expected. Encountering him in that alley, Callahan had not found the smiling, full-faced blond from Lucian’s student ID, but rather a waif of a boy with mousy brown hair and a penchant for flippant disregard. Almost five years stood between Lucian and the freshman youth in that picture. It would seem that had been enough time to sap him of most of his body fat, as well as the illustrious blond locks his family was known for.

Lucian’s affect by no means surprised Callahan. Arrogance was something most vampires had in spades, though Lucian really outdid his peers with a boundless hubris that radiated from his every movement, his every gesture. Callahan had been quite happy to witness Lucian’s nonchalant indifference to his dalliances met with a consequence on the plane ride back to the academy. If Lucian’s shocked anger was anything to go by, he had not often faced consequences for his actions. Despite this positive, meeting Lucian had left a bad taste in Callahan’s mouth. That being said, he had followed up with the vampire out of concern for his health.

The encounter in the library hadn’t led to much better results. The vampire’s arrogance had been replaced with outright malice, and when he’d made mention of Callahan’s mother, Callahan had almost lost all control. Lucian’s readily blushing face always gave away his embarrassment and he’d been blushing furiously by the end of the exchange in the library. It would seem he was the type to counter embarrassment with petulance, which did little to surprise Callahan, but also wasn't an excuse for being openly malicious toward Callahan.

All the same, when faced with Holland’s rabidity, Lucian had not simply washed his hands of the situation. Instead he had resolved the matter so that Callahan wouldn’t have to. Because of this, begrudging respect had replaced his disdain for Lucian. That being said, Callahan would have preferred to have not been assigned as Lucian’s bodyguard at a royal’s party. This sentiment was all the more reinforced when Lucian had warned Callahan on the car ride to Blight’s estate about the shifter fights. Blight was a strict traditionalist, according to Lucian: he kept multiple collared shifters for carnal reasons and continued the practice of having shifters fight for vampires’ entertainment. These fights had once been commonplace in society, but as shifters had grown more and more vocals regarding their rights, vampires had been forced to cut back on how they exploited them. Callahan had been under the impression that the fights had been entirely done away with, and he’d voiced a weak ‘they can’t do that’ in the car.

Lucian had simply gazed at him for a long moment across the back of the limo. His face had been inscrutable, as it generally was when it wasn’t bathed in indifferent arrogance. Finally he had shook his head.

“Unfortunately it’s not illegal,” he said. “I know of several high ranking guardians at the royal court who are pushing it be so, but Blight isn’t going to stop the fights until he receives a royal decree.”

Callahan was quite grateful for the heads up Lucian had provided. In the time between the car ride and entering Blight’s private viewing box, he had been able to steel himself against the horrifying thought of having to witness other shifters duking it out for the perverse entertainment of vampires. Despite the mental preparation, he couldn’t shake the abject horror that seized his gut upon first witnessing the shifters in the ring.

Seeing Lucian enter the ring evoked an entirely different set of emotions. There was of course the unadulterated shock that Lord Samarillian would allow his son to fight for the entertainment of his peers. That feeling was rather overshadowed by his complete and utter confusion regarding his newfound knowledge that Lucian was slated to become a guardian. Most if not all vampire guardians were from families of little to no note, since the status of being a guardian would improve familial status, and the paycheck was quite hefty. On top of that they were generally exceptional with elemental magic since that was what gave them the edge over shifters. Lucian decidedly did not fall into any of these categories.

Following close on the heels of these emotions was apprehension. Nothing about Lucian’s appearance had ever struck Callahan as threatening. Granted, he did have the advantage of being a full head and shoulders taller than Lucian, but even beside that, Lucian looked at best wan. Sure, Callahan had noted that the techniques Lucian used against Nick spoke of training, but taking a vampire by surprise in a school cafeteria and fighting a shifter in a gladiator ring were two entirely different circumstances. As his guardian, Callahan couldn’t in good conscious allow him to enter into that training yard, and the burning need to protect Lucian had overtaken all other emotion as he’d stared down at the barefoot vampire beside him. Lucian’s reassurances had done little to assuage Callahan’s worry, but an undisputed victory against Tristan had done just that. There had been moments when Lucian had tripped up, and Callahan had felt his stomach drop to the floor, but Lucian had always regained his footing. By the end of the fight it became clear that Lucian had impeccable technique and more strength in his body than anyone would have guessed.

Then he had gone ahead and goaded Blight into sending out his guardian. Why: Callahan couldn’t fathom. Perhaps he was offended that Blight had thought Tristan would pose any sort of challenge. Perhaps he really did want to prove his worth to Blight. Either way, Callahan’s first recommendation wouldn’t have been to indirectly challenge Samson to a fight.

Samson was an alpha, and the type, from what Callahan had gathered from his disposition in the viewing box, who had made that abundantly clear, most likely in the form of bullying other shifters, especially collared ones. During the time in the viewing box, Samson had made no effort to hide the fact that he was openly checking Lucian out with a leering expression. Callahan didn’t doubt Samson would do his utmost to pin Lucian down in this fight.

Callahan watched with growing unrest as Lucian paced to the center of the ring once more. He came to a halt and remained with his back turned to Samson for a long moment as the guardian continued his approach. Even from here, Callahan could see Lucian’s chest rising and falling with controlled breathing. After another moment of gathering himself, Lucian’s shoulders squared fully and he turned to face Samson. For a brief moment a vicious glare crossed Lucian's features as he stared up at Samson, but it was quickly replaced with devoid indifference. This fight, Callahan realized, was personal for Lucian, but he couldn't figure out in what regard.

As the fight commenced, it became clear that, despite Lucian's training, Samson decisively had the upper hand. Samson was bigger than him; stronger than him; and didn’t seem to care in the slightest that he was facing off against a noble vampire. He was fully bent on dragging Lucian to the ground and holding him there until he yielded. This style of fighting lacked technique; it wasn't pretty, rather brutal. Generally it was a style utilized when alphas faced off against each other to prove who was superior.

Shortly into the fight Samson was successful in bringing Lucian down. As Lucian darted back from a jab to his stomach, Samson’s hand snaked out and he snagged a hold of Lucian’s braid. He yanked the vampire toward him by his hair and kicked his feet out from under him. Lucian fell to the ground and Samson descended on him. The shifter pinned an hand to Lucian’s neck and bore his weight down on him. Lucian snarled and twisted beneath him, utterly dismissive of the crushing weight being applied to his throat. His hands latched around Samson’s forearms, his nails digging into his skin. Samson leaned over him and his mouth moved as he murmured something to Lucian. Lucian’s head jerked off the floor and his teeth gnashed on air. Samson only laughed down on him.

“That ended surprisingly quickly,” Lord Blight said as he looked over at Lucian’s father.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Aleksei,” Lord Samarillian murmured.

Callahan was all for having faith in Lucian, but when a fight went to the ground whoever ended up under the other usually stayed there. There simply wasn’t enough leverage to free oneself. Callahan looked back to the pair in the ring and found their position hadn’t changed. Samson was still laughing and throwing verbal jabs down on Lucian as he continued to squeeze the vampire’s neck. Lucian hadn’t tapped out yet and until he did, Samson could and would continue to strangle him.

Lucian’s hips suddenly slammed up against Samson’s, tipping the shifter forward. His hands twisted harshly and Samson’s forearm snapped in half. A pain stricken expression shot across Samson’s face. Lucian hurled his body weight to the side and threw Samson off of him. Samson skidded across the hard-packed dirt of yard. Lucian surged to his feet, closing the gap between the pair in a moment. Samson made it to his knees before Lucian reached him and he threw up his uninjured arm to block Lucian’s descending blow.

Lucian snaked arm around Samson’s, yanked it taut, and snapped it at the elbow. Samson’s shout of pain could be heard even over the roaring crowd. Lucian released his arm and took a small step forward. Samson glared up at him. He made to rise, but Lucian clamped a hand on his shoulder. He lifted his other hand and struck Samson across the face with his open palm, causing his head to snap to the side. The crowd gasped collectively. Bitch slaps were not considered traditional technique in the ring and even the surrounding vampires knew this.

Lucian crouched down in front of Samson, catching hold his chin and yanking him around to face him. He murmured something in a low voice and Samson’s face twisted with rage. Lucian tossed him aside and walked away across the yard. Stunned silence had fell over the crowd as they watched Lucian approach the rail. Lucian stared directly at Lord Blight as he moved. He didn’t look away once even as he scaled the rail.

“I hope _that_ at least was satisfying,” he growled.

Lord Blight gritted his teeth audibly and sent a fierce scowl to Lord Samarillian. Lucian’s father opened his mouth to speak, but Lucian cut across the room and shoved his way out the door before he could get a word in.

Callahan hurried after him. The vampire was storming swiftly away down the hall. His hands hung in tight fists at his sides and his shoulders were tensed.

“Lucian, what the hell was that?” Callahan asked as soon as he’d caught up with the vampire.

“What do you mean?” Lucian asked, anger coiled in his voice. He continued walking down the hallway without even sparing Callahan a glance.

“That wasn’t a fight that was an exercise in humiliation,” Callahan said. He moved in front of Lucian, forcing him to stop or plow into him.

Lucian chose the former. He lifted his gaze to meet Callahan’s and simply stared at him.

“And I wasn’t humiliated when he pinned me down?” Lucian asked, raising his brows.

“You broke both his arms and slapped him in the face. He’s going to be stripped of his position as a guardian, and Blight’s going to collar him.”

“Actually Blight won't collar him; he’s going to be pawned off to at best a noble, and he’s going to live the rest of his life as cheap, fucking. _Whore_ ,” Lucian spat.

“What is wrong with you?” Callahan snapped as he took a step forward. “I get it; he looked at you like he wanted to bend you over, but that is no call for ruining his life.”

“The punishment fit the crime, Cal, and I don’t have to fucking justify myself to you,” Lucian snarled, slamming his fist into Callahan’s chest.

Callahan barely registered the blow; what did catch his attention was the distinct scent that was coiling around Lucian. The abject anger on his face did nothing to reassure Callahan that this smell would be fleeting.

Callahan caught a hold of Lucian’s wrist with one hand, his hip with the other, and shoved the vampire back against the wall. Lucian released a borderline feral snarl, and bucked against him, his free hand clenching down on Callahan’s wrist. Callahan bore his weight down on him, crowding into his space.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Lucian finally managed to articulate.

“I’m sorry,” Callahan murmured, “but, Lucian, you smell rabid.”

Lucian’s eyes widened. He stilled beneath Callahan’s hands for a moment, taking stock of his words, before his face twisted with rage again and he jerked under Callahan’s hold.

“You have no right to--”

“Lucian, stop, just breath,” Callahan murmured.

“I’m fine; let me go.” Lucian’s hand tightening painfully around Callahan’s wrist. He wasn’t fine; Callahan could smell this fact on him. On top of that, his body temperature was steadily rising.

“Lucian,” Callahan snapped with an authority he would never dream of using on a vampire under normal circumstances.

Lucian gasped as the tone of voice washed over him. He stilled once more in Callahan’s grip. His body trembled ever so slightly; his gaze fixed on Callahan’s chest. His own rose and fell with hastily panted breaths.

“Slower,” Callahan said in a much softer voice. “Focus on breathing nice and slow.”

Lucian swallowed and nodded shakily. He took in a deep, slow breath before exhaling at the same pace.

“That’s good, Lucian, that’s good.”

Suddenly Lucian’s chin began to tip back. The noble’s eyes widened and a small noise of distress caught in his throat. Callahan quickly released his wrist and grabbed his chin, holding his face down so he didn’t bear his throat.

“Fuck,” Lucian whispered.

“Sorry, sorry,” Callahan said hurriedly.

“You’re an alpha,” Lucian murmured, keeping his gaze rooted to Callahan’s chest.

“I am,” Callahan said with a nod.

“That explains a lot, not just this,” Lucian said. His voice was low, and a touch breathy. He was providing a touch of resistance against the pinch of Callahan’s fingers on his chin as his instincts continued to scream at him to submit to the alpha. It wasn’t normal for a vampire to be so susceptible to an alpha’s pheromones like this, so Callahan had never considered it a possibility that Lucian would try to bear his neck.

“I’m sorry,” Callahan said again.

“It’s fine,” Lucian said. His body had ceased trembling and his chest was rising with much steadier breathing. “Is this typical protocol for dealing with a shifter going rabid?”

“It is actually,” Callahan said. He didn’t let up his hold on Lucian, not quite convinced he was in control of himself in any capacity. “Pinning them down minimizes the risk of them hurting themselves or others.”

“Don’t think I couldn’t still break all your bones,” Lucian muttered.

“I'm sure you could,” Callahan said, "but this also helps create a sense of safety.”

“You sure the word you’re looking for isn’t submission?” Lucian said as he lifted his gaze at long last to meet Callahan’s.

“It’s not submission,” Callahan replied as he stepped away from Lucian, releasing him completely.

Lucian gritted his teeth. He was doing his utmost to keep his expression aloof and indifferent, but his eyes narrowed slightly in a glare.

“I could have handled that myself,” he finally said as he turned and walked away.

“I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable,” Callahan said as he followed. “I didn’t know how else to handle that situation.”

“In the future,” Lucian said as he glanced over his shoulder, “don’t touch me.”

“Got it,” Callahan said with a nod. “Again, I’m sorry.”

Lucian nodded as he continued down the hall. The pair walked in silence. Though Lucian hadn’t forbade him from helping should another incident arise where it seemed like he was going into a frenzy, Callahan wasn’t certain how he could help without touching him. Simply talking someone down from the edge of rabidness wasn’t a particularly successful tactic. He doubted chatting would help with a frenzying vampire either. He’d never witnessed a vampire enter a frenzy, but Lucian’s smell had been distinctly reminiscent of a rabid shifter. Vampires were not as prone to frenzies as shifters were to rabidness. They either frenzied because they were starving for blood, or they had consumed too much for them to process. Clearly Lucian’s feeding situation was a lot more dire than Callahan had initially thought. Though this was an unsettling thought to say the least, Callahan didn’t want to pressure him too much with questions regarding the frenzy. If it did have to do with his feeding, Lucian would shut down that line of discussion immediately, being that it was the last thing Lucian liked to talk about. Instead of pursuing this line of thought, Callahan focused on something else Lucian had made mention of.

“When you said that the punishment fit the crime,” he said slowly, “what exactly did you mean?”

“Samson wasn’t the type to just look,” Lucian murmured as he moved slowly around the bend in the corridor.

“He didn’t--did he do something to you?” Callahan tried his best to keep the thread of panic from his tone. If Samson had done something to Lucian, the last thing Callahan wanted to do was upset Lucian with his own reaction.

“Not me,” Lucian said, his voice low.

Callahan stared down at him as he processed the words. Samson very well could have done something to a collar, but Lucian probably wouldn’t have known about that.

“Mikhael,” Callahan said as the realization struck.

Lucian’s head dipped a fraction in a nod.

“Does his uncle know?”

Lucian breathed a small laugh. He looked up at Callahan over his shoulder and shook his head scornfully.

“You are so simple, Cal,” he said.

Though the response was enigmatic--as well as unbelievably condescending--Callahan took it as confirmation that Lord Blight had been aware of what his guardian was doing with his nephew. His stomach twisted with revulsion at the thought. He had half a mind to apologize to Lucian for jumping to the conclusion that he hadn’t had a valid reason to attack Samson like he had. Instead, he held his tongue. Lucian was right; he shouldn’t have had to justify himself to Callahan, and Callahan shouldn’t have assumed he had acted with any ill intent.

Lucian continued to lead them seemingly aimlessly through the halls of the estate. From Callahan’s understanding of the layout of the estate, they were making their way back toward the guest room they were staying in. The large bay windows that issued in the sun’s light helped with knowledge of the direction they went. One such window at the end of the hall bathed the pair in the golden light of morning. It was strange seeing Lucian in the daylight. His pale skin was almost translucent and his hair practically glowed like a halo around him. If he weren’t so insufferable in character, Callahan might have allowed himself to spare the thought that he was attractive.

The sudden sound of shattering glass filled the hall as the window panes exploded inward. Lucian screamed in unadulterated agony as his skin was scorched. His hands flew up, blocking his face from the sunlight, but the back of his hands blistered from the light.

Callahan grabbed him and shoved into one of the shadowed alcoves that lined the hall. Lucian stumbled back against the wall and pressed himself down in the corner, a small sob of pain breaking from his lips. Callahan turned to face what exactly had caused the windows to break.

A sanguine crouched in just in front of the window. Its leathery skin was mottled and scorched from the sunlight, steam spilling off it from spots that had almost lit on fire. Its wrinkled, gaunt face distorted with a scowl. A cluster of jumbled, overlapping needle-like teeth filled its maw. With a screech like nails on a chalkboard, the sanguine launched across the hall toward Callahan.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is not the best chapter ever but it be like that sometimes it's the gist of the plot and i can come back later to make the writing better  
> also we're decidedly ignoring that lucian's heels vanished after the fight

Fighting a sun-damaged sanguine proved to be no real threat to Callahan. He'd barely needed to unsheath his claws to decapitate the creature given how weakened it was. Upon doing so viscous blood spewed out of the sanguine’s neck. Its head fell to the floor and rolled away. The body teetered to the side and fell at Callahan’s feet. Callahan swiftly rounded his attention on Lucian and he found the vampire still huddled in the alcove where Callahan had shoved him. His hands were cradling his face gently. The backs of them were mottled and disfigured with burns. The real threat of the situation had never been the sanguine, rather the sunlight. If Callahan had been a little faster, reacted a little quicker, he might have managed to spare Lucian from the sun more than he had. As it stood, the sunlight had done a real number on the vampire.

Callahan moved to the window and quickly pressed the emergency button there. A steel barrier descended into the gaping hole the glass had left, cutting off the sun rays from entering into the hall. He wiped down his bloodied hands as best he could on the inside of his jacket before crouching down in front of Lucian. The vampire made a tiny, distressed noise and curled in on himself more.

“Hey, you’re alright,” Callahan said. His hand lifted instinctively to rest on Lucian's knee, but he stopped himself. He'd been given strict instructions not to touch Lucian, and he had the feeling those extended even to this circumstance. “Let me take a look, okay Lucian?”

Lucian shook his head, not uttering a sound. 

“Let me, please?”

Lucian slowly lowered his hands. He lifted his head away from his chest to reveal his face. The lower half was a miasma of warped and puckered burns. Lucian’s lips were twisted unnaturally, revealing his teeth. He wouldn't meet Callahan's eyes.

“It’s not that bad,” Callahan said in a tight voice.

“You’re a terrible liar, you know that?” Lucian said.

“I am,” Callahan said. “I'm sorry.”

“I’ll be fine, Callahan,” Lucian murmured. “Just hurts a lot.”

“You don’t need to reassure me,” Callahan said. “That’s my job.”

“Then tell me it’ll be okay,” Lucian said, his voice fracturing slightly.

“It will be, Lucian,” Callahan said. “The silent alarm has been triggered so the estate will go into lockdown. If there are any more sangs, they’ll be dealt with. We'll get you back the room then we can tend to those burns. I know it hurts right now, but we're gonna get you fixed up, I promise.”

Lucian nodded. Callahan carefully helped him to his feet. The vampire swayed slightly, but Callahan kept a firm hold on his forearm.

“You can walk?” Callahan said.

“That had best not be a question,” Lucian replied. He squared his shoulders, tugged his arm free of Callahan’s grip, and set out down the hall.

His stride was slow, though not hesitant. He moved purposefully but was still conscious that he was slightly compromised from the injuries. Callahan followed after him, his hand hovering over the small of his back in case he lost his balance.

“How did that thing get in here?” Lucian asked.

“It must have been out in the woods at night,” Callahan said, “and chose the mansion as the nearest shelter from the sunlight.”

“And the perimeter patrol just let it mosey about?” Lucian muttered.

“If the patrol encountered the sang, they’re dead,” Callahan said flatly. “Either that or it managed to slip by them.”

Lucian didn’t reply to that, opting instead to continue in silence. The halls they were moving down were at the back of the estate, far from both the banquet hall and the training yard. Because of this, they didn’t encounter anyone on the way back to the room. The guests would be locked down wherever they were, save for the royals onsite who would be evacuated from the estate entirely or taken to their rooms.

As the pair rounded the final corner and entered the corridor their room lay off of, Lucian stumbled slightly, his hand flying out in a blind search for the wall. His fingertips brushed it as Callahan caught his hips. He held the vampire steady.

“Alright?” he asked.

“Head hurts,” Luican mumbled. “Fuck, this day has been a lot.” His words were barely audible and Callahan took them as being more for himself than the shifter.

“We’re almost there, then you can lie down and I can bandage the wounds.”

Lucian nodded and continued to the door to their rooms. As Lucian pressed his keycard against the door’s lock, a sudden scrabbling noise sounded from the opposite end of the hall.

“Get inside now,” Callahan ordered as he slammed the door open.

Lucian stumbled inside just as another sang scrambled around the corner. The stench of blood filled the hall. The lower half of the creatures face was drenched in it. Not a single burn blemished its leathery flesh. Its gleaming red eyes flickered between the pair. It snarled and launched itself into the air.

Callahan intercepted it, knocking it against the wall with a blow to its chest. The creature lashed out blindly with its claws and Callahan dodged backward, hoping to lure it away from Lucian. It didn’t follow after him, instead tearing down the hall and darting into the room.

“Lucian, get to the bedroom! Now!” Callahan yelled as he ran after the creature.

In the room Lucian didn’t make a beeline for the bedroom. He spun around as the creature scampered toward him and slammed a fist directly into its chest. The creature flew backward, its limbs flailing in an effort to right itself. A bony, crooked elbow slammed into the security button beside the guest room door.

“Fuck!” Callahan lunged forward.

“Cal, don’t!” Lucian cried out.

The order from his charge made him pause for a fraction of a second, enough time to let the steel plates slammed together in the doorframe. Callahan plowed into the metal, burying his fist into it. If Lucian hadn’t called out, he would have reached the door in time, though he had to admit it only would have been in time for his hands to be crushed between the plates.

“Fuck,” Callahan snarled, punching his fist against the security plate once more. All this did was send pain spiking through he knuckles. The muffled sound of a fight slipped through the door and Callahan heard Lucian bite out a string of swears.

Callahan pulled back from the door and quickly ran his eyes over the security panels. Steel plates like these were designed for the explicit purpose of keeping people out, and that included, as it so happened, a shifter who desperately needed to get to his charge before he was killed. Callahan's gaze flickered to the wall beside the panel where the security button was located on the other side. Plaster and perhaps stonework lay between him and the button, but both of those would be easier to break through than steel.

Callahan moved in front of the wall, brought his fist back, and buried it into the wall. Shards of wood and plaster dust exploded outward as half his forearm buried into the wall. His fist was met with the bone-shattering obstruction of reinforced stone. He grimaced as his fingers broke on impact, but he simply dislodge his wrist and plunged his fist back into the hole. After another three tries that ripped apart the skin of his knuckles, he broke through the stone and then the plaster beyond. Crouching down, he slid his arm through the hole. His hand groped around blindly before finding the button and depressing it. Yanking his arm free, Callahan moved back to the door. The steel panels slid aside.

Lucian stood in the doorway, bloodied but unbowed. And God, was he bloodied. His clothes were soaked through with the liquid, and ripped to shreds in place. His hands dripped crimson and the lower half of his face was completely covered. A face, Callahan noted, that was decidedly healed of all injuries.

“You broke a wall down for me,” Lucian said. His lips pulled back in a smile, revealing blood-stained teeth.

“Lucian,” Callahan gasped, lunging forward and catching hold of the vampires arms. “Did you fucking feed from that thing? That blood will you _kill_ you.”

“Do I look dead to you?” Lucian asked.

“How…” Callahan shook his head slowly. Like sang saliva was toxic to shifters, the creatures' blood was acidic to vampires. That being said, Lucian’s throat had by no means dissolved and under the coat of blood he actually looked fresh-faced and energized in a way Callahan had never seen him.

“I’m fine, Cal,” Lucian said with a rather sardonic smirk. “You know,” he added, glancing down at the shifter’s hands, which still gripped his arms, “you’re taking an awful lot of liberties with my body this weekend.”

Callahan jerked back immediately, removing his hands from Lucian. The vampire only chuckled quietly, though the sound was dry and his face remained devoid of mirth. Callahan cast his gaze quickly around the room to take stalk of things beyond Lucian.

To his utter horror, he found the sanguine’s body lying beside the couch. It was torn to pieces, limbs scattered about the stump of its body. Its head somewhere out of sight. Blood drenched the carpet and the couch. The stench of death and rot filled the air. Callahan steeled himself from the unmitigated massacre and looked back to Lucian. The vampire’s eyes were downcast, his shoulders hunched slightly, and he seemed almost embarrassed.

“Are you hurt?” Callahan asked.

Lucian shook his head. At that moment, his phone buzzed loudly. Lucian fished it out carefully with blood slicked hands. He slid his thumb over the screen, but to no avail. Callahan reached out and answered the call for him.

“Hello?” Lucian said when he’d brought the phone to his ear. “Yes, I’m fine...uh--” Lucian glanced over his shoulder at the mutilated corpse behind them-- “there were two, but we dealt with them…No, I’m fine...I didn’t, no.” Lucian rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke and he licked his lips self-consciously. “Give me ten minutes,” he said. After a pause, he added, “Believe me you do not want to be stuck in a car with me for an hour in this state.” Lucian hung up. He moved to the couch that was clear of blood and dropped his phone onto it. “I need to shower. Will you pack up?” Lucian asked as he headed to the bathroom.

“Of course,” Callahan said. “Then we’re leaving?”

“Yes,” Lucian said. “Thank God.” His hand rested on the bathroom door and he looked back over his shoulder. “You know the sad thing is this isn’t even the worse Blight party I’ve been to.”

Callahan stared at him. Lucian struck the most macabre yet elegant pose Callahan had ever seen as he stood in front of the bathroom door covered in drying blood. Callahan let out a stunned laugh.

“That’s actually horrifying,” Callahan said with a shake of his head.

“I can tell you about the other party another time if you’d like,” Lucian said, smirking slightly.

“No, I’m quite alright leaving it up to my imagination,” Callahan replied.

A smile broke out across Lucian’s face, the first truly sincere one that Callahan had seen from him. It stood in stark dissonance with all the blood coating him, and yet was somehow breathtaking.

Lucian turned away and headed into the bathroom. Callahan set to work packing up there things. Neither had emptied their bags to any real extent, so the most he had to do was toss a few items into them, zip them up, and take them to the sitting room. Upon doing that, he got a bed sheet to lay over the sang’s corpse. He located the head behind the couch as well, kicked it over beside the body, and draped the sheet over the whole mess. He had seen plenty of dismembered corpses in his time that this sight wasn’t all that stomach turning, but he didn’t want whatever poor soul had to come clean this room to immediately see the corpse and have a heart attack.

Once that was done, he went carefully through Lucian’s overnight bag, finding spare clothes for the vampire. Moving toward the bathroom, he rapped lightly on the door. The sound of the shower running was all he could hear from inside. He creaked the door open slightly and deposited the clothes just inside the room before returning the couch where Lucian’s phone was. He wiped the device off with tissues from the box on the coffee table before stowing it in his pocket.

A few minutes later Lucian was exiting the shower in the fresh clothes Callahan had laid out for him. His hair hung in a messy, wet ponytail down his back, and his face was clean of both blood and makeup. His cheeks were flushed slightly from the heat of the shower.

“Ready?” Callahan asked.

Lucian nodded and the pair left the room. Lucian took them to the back of the mansion, explaining his father’s car was parked by the servant’s receiving bay to keep them away from the crowds of folks at the front of the mansion.

All the same, they did pass a handful of Blight’s security in the hallway. Callahan waylaid them for an update on the situation. They didn’t have many details regarding the attack; the security footage would need to be scrutinized to figure out exactly what had occurred, but they were able to tell them that eight sang had been put down in the mansion. The injuries were limited thankfully to a few scrapes, but the perimeter patrol still hadn’t been accounted for.

Upon leaving the building, the pair found a long black limousine parked in the driveway. The gravel drive was concealed by an overhang that kept the vampires safe from the sunlight. Ethan stood by the open door of the limo. He smiled at Lucian when saw him and opened the door for him.

“Glad to see you’re alright,” the shifter murmured.

Lucian gave him a small nod as he climbed into the limo.

“I can take those,” Ethan said as he held his hands out for the bags Callahan carried.

“Thanks,” Callahan said, passing them to him.

Lucian was taking a seat across from his father when Callahan entered the back of limo. Callahan sat down beside him. Lucian was smiling blithely at his father who simply watched him with a blank expression. The air in the car had a decided fizzle of tension and palpable hope that the car ride would be short and sweet overtook Callahan.

Ethan climbed in that moment and his shutting the door cued the driver to roll out. Callahan glanced up at him as the other shifter settled in. Ethan gave him a small ‘bear with it’ sort of smile.

“Quite the performance in the training yard,” Lord Samarillian said.

“You liked it?” Lucian said.

“Were you utterly incapable of achieving the same results without humiliating Aleksei’s guardian?”

“I was, yes,” Lucian said. “Utterly incapable.”

Lord Samarillian’s face twitched with anger as he stared at his son. His hands clasped around his knees and for a finite moment Callahan sensed the man wanted nothing more than to choke Lucian out. Lucian only stared at him with a face devoid of expression.

“You encountered two sanguines?” Lucian’s father continued, but he turned his gaze to look at Callahan.

Callahan straightened slightly and nodded.

“Yes sir,” he said.

“Callahan took care of them,” Lucian said. “You asked for the best the academy had to offer and they certainly delivered.”

Callahan glanced over at Lucian. He was smiling in that empty, indifferent fashion of his as he gazed back at Callahan. Callahan kept his expression neutral despite his confusion over why Lucian was lying.

“He did, did he?” Lord Samarillian mused. “Callahan, are you a registered guardian?”

“No sir,” Callahan said, turning his attention back to Lucian’s father.

“In that case, I might take you as a collar,” Lucian’s father said.

“He’s spoken for.” Lucian’s voice was abrupt and borderline harsh he cut into the conversation.

His father’s head swiveled around and he gazed at him with narrowed eyes.

“Is that so?” he said in a low voice.

“He’ll be my guardian,” Lucian continued.

“Will he now?” Lord Samarillian said.

Lucian nodded decisively. His father turned back to Callahan.

“After you pass the examination, you will Lucian’s guardian?”

“Nothing is definitive, of course, but that is a very real possibility,” Callahan said diplomatically.

Lord Samarillian smiled and nodded. He pulled a tablet from his bag and put on a pair of headphones, thus ending the conversation with finality.

Lucian looked over at Callahan. His face was unreadable, but his eyes practically glowed with rage. Callahan returned the glare. He knew full well Ethan was watching the exchange, but if Lucian wasn’t going to let up then neither was he. After another moment, Lucian held out his hand. Callahan cocked his head in confusion.

“Phone,” the vampire said flatly.

Callahan fished it out and handed it over to him. Lucian slouched back in his seat and pulled up a game. Callahan watched him for a moment before settling back in his own seat. He spared a glance in Ethan’s direction and sure enough Ethan was watching him. He had on a rather cryptic expression, but Callahan could pick out something like sympathy in his eyes.

He wasn’t exactly certain which aspect of his situation roust such a feeling from Ethan. Perhaps it was Lord Samarillian’s offer of collaring; perhaps Lucian’s one-sided decision that Callahan would be his guardian. Most likely both, Callahan supposed as he looked out the car window. With this thought in mind, Callahan was once again left fervently wishing he hadn’t been assigned to Lucian for this weekend.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm going back now to introduce eden as one of blight's guardians bc i thought of a plot line i want to get out of that. raife will of course still be present in this rewrite since his existence is critical for that of another character XD

Three days had passed since Callahan and Lucian had returned from Blight’s estate. In this time Lucian had managed to become no less irate with Callahan. Lucian could understand--better than most if any vampire--how irritating having one’s life dictated by others could be, and he didn’t doubt that was how Callahan had felt upon Lucian declaring Callahan would be his guardian. That being said when faced with a choice between Lucian and his father, Callahan should have jumped at the opportunity to be Lucian’s guardian. Yet Callahan had done nothing of the sort and for that Lucian had been outraged for the last seventy-two hours.

He had done his utmost to tamp this feeling down with no success. He had already come to terms with everything else that had happened at the estate, and there was a lot. For starters there was performing in a shifter fight. Doing so had been nerve-wracking, and a touch humiliating. He might have been raised to be a guardian, but he’d always been treated as a noble vampire. Until he was sent into that arena. In there, he was simply a form of entertainment, like any shifter, and there was no nobility in entertaining. Lucian was quite aware that he functioned within the cliche of absolutely abhorring everything and anything to do with his father. This included his status as a noble, though he would admit he enjoyed the comfort and security the status provided him with. In that training yard he had been afforded neither of those things.

At the very least he had been able to take advantage of the opportunity to get rid of Samson, something he’d been bent on doing since he walked in on them three years ago. Mikhael had yet to contact him with regards to Samson losing his position. Lucian didn’t entirely expect him to. He and Mikhael spoke rarely, and never about Mikhael’s situation with Samson. Even after the time Lucian had walked in on the pair, Mikhael had made no mention of it. Lucian respected his desire not to speak of his relationship with Samson.

That being said, it would be nice to hear from him. Without any word from him, Lucian could only hope that Mikhael wouldn’t get any backlash from his uncle for Samson’s humiliation at Lucian’s hands. Lucian had been hard pressed to win against Samson, given that Samson was worlds stronger than he. Completely losing his cool after the fight had been an unfortunate consequence of taking on Samson. It hadn’t been the first time he’d lost control, and that was exactly what his father had hoped to avoid happening in the arena. Luckily, Lucian had managed to save the meltdown for when he was away from the public eye.

Lucian had always been exceptionally volatile. This was one of the many byproducts of his unorthodox heritage, as well as one of the more dangerous. It lessened his threshold for withstanding a frenzy substantially and he’d gone full tilt into the throes of many growing up. He was generally able to get himself under control. The one time he hadn’t had ended in bloodshed. Lucian doubted he had run the risk of such an outcome occurring, even if Callahan hadn’t intervened. But Callahan had, and Lucian now had to deal with the fact that Callahan was aware of something else Lucian had always wanted to keep under wraps.

With regards to the first that Callahan had uncovered, Lucian had the sanguine attack to thank for the fact that his thirst was no longer an issue. It had been two years ago when Lucian had discovered quite by accident that he was capable of drinking sanguine blood, a fact that had thoroughly ruined the taste of human blood and had set him up for two years of debilitating hunger. The recent attack at the Blight estate however had seen to it that he would be sated for a substantial amount of time. While being locked in a room with a sanguine had been without a doubt terrifying, it had at least spared Lucian the humiliation of having Callahan witness his overindulging on sanguine blood.

 

All in all the party could have gone worlds better, and not resulted in copious amounts of fallout. One such exercise in damage control that Lucian was finally allowing himself to deal with was the issue with Callahan. It had been his hope that given a few nights he would no longer feel the need to bite Callahan’s head off. Unfortunately this was far from the case he found as he rapped aggressively on the door of the shifters-staff's cottage. The cabin was located on the edge of the woods that surrounded the academy. The walk to it from the quad was about fifteen minutes, but it had done little to clear his head.

A few moments after Lucian’s insistent knocking, the door opened to reveal a guardian Lucian vaguely recognized from the dining hall. She was tall with spiky auburn hair and twinkling green eyes. She had a jovial expression on her round face that didn’t fluctuate despite the oddity of finding a vampire, an annoyed one at that, on her doorstep.

“Hey, how can I help you?” she said. Her voice held a lilt of an accent that  Lucian couldn’t quite place.

“Is Callahan here?” Lucian asked.

“He’ll be back in a bit,” the shifter said. “You can wait in the living room for him.”

Lucian nodded and walked into the entry hall.

“I’m Sam, by the way,” the woman said as she led the way down the entry hall to the living room.

“Lucian,” Lucian replied out of habit.

“Oh, I know,” Sam said with a laugh. “Vanessa has mentioned you before.” Sam gestured to the couch as the pair entered the living room.

“I’m sure she sang my praises,” he said as he took a seat.  

“She’s your number one fan,” Sam joked, winning an eye roll from Lucian. She left the room then, leaving Lucian to his own devices.

Gazing around the room, he found the walls lined from floor to ceiling with bookshelves. Only a few breaks in the shelves allowed for small, square windows to give a glimpse of the setting moon. The room was littered with seemingly random objects: a few globes; some animal statues; a bong or an empty vase Lucian couldn’t quite say; and finally a fish tank lacking a fish. It was a cozy if eccentric room and Lucian found it feeling rather homey.

Sam returned in that moment. She carried a tray, which was laden with all the trappings of tea time. She moved with a willowy grace to the coffee table and sat down the tray.

“You didn’t have to make all this for me,” Lucian said as he moved over slightly on the couch to afford her more space.

“I already had a pot on,” she explained as she sat down beside him, “and my mother would be rolling in her grave if I didn’t play the perfect hostess.” She filled the tea cups and held one out to me. “Sugar? Milk? Honey?”

“This is fine,” I said, taking the cup from her. “Thank you.”

She nodded as she set about filling her own cup with all of the above. She finished ladling sugar into her cup and stirred the concoction with the tiny sugar spoon.

“How are you doing?” Sam asked as she leaned back against the couch. “I heard things got a little wild at that royal party you and Cal were at.”

“Honestly, felt pretty run-of-the-mill for a Blight party,” Lucian said, shrugging slightly. “Given half a chance I don’t doubt Blight would have tried to pit the sangs against shifters for a new form of entertainment.”

“Ah, so he’s one of those royal hosts,” Sam said with a knowing nod.

“You’ve been to parties with shifter fights before?” Lucian asked.

“Yup, luckily if you’re in the employ of the academy you get immunity from going into the ring,” Sam explained. “Only privately contracted shifters can fight.”

At that moment the sound of the door opening came from the front hall. Sam set her mug down.

“That must be Callahan,” she said.

Lucian nodded. He didn’t need to make any supposition, knowing full well from the smell alone that Callahan had entered. Having the alpha pin him to the wall had thoroughly branded his scent in Lucian’s mind.

Lucian got up and moved into the hallway. Callahan looked around at the sound of his footfalls as he closed down quietly behind himself. He frowned slightly at the sight of Lucian.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, though he forwent a greeting his tone didn’t carry any rudeness, merely curiosity.

“We need to talk,” Lucian said, folding his arms.

Callahan nodded and headed up the stairs to the second floor. Lucian followed closely behind him. The hall at the top of the stairs was lined with doors. Callahan took Lucian to the third on the right. He pulled out his keys, unlocked the door, and held it open for Lucian to enter.

The room beyond was about twice the size of Lucian’s dorm room. It boasted a bed, a dresser with a flat screen on it, a desk, a bookshelf, and an armchair. A door to his left stood off the short entry hall, most likely leading into a bathroom. Lucian stepped inside, cued by an inviting gesture from Callahan

“Take a se--” Callahan began.

“What the fuck were you thinking in that car?” Lucian demanded as he rounded on the shifter.

Callahan raised his brows at the sudden outburst. He let the door shut behind him as he folded his arms over his chest.

“What are you talking about?”

“‘Nothing’s definitive’?” Lucian quoted with a biting edge to his voice. “What the fuck did you mean by that?”

“Exactly what I said,” Callahan said. His voice remained even, but his face was a hard plane as he stared down at the vampire. “I don’t recall ever agreeing that I would become your guardian.”

“The only other choice you have is being collared by my father,” Lucian said, “and by not immediately saying you would be my guardian, you’re giving him the impression that you’re available to be collared. But, hey--” Lucian tossed up his hands-- “if you fixing to get fucked by him, I won’t stop you.”

Callahan’s eyes flashed and he jerked forward. Lucian stumbled backward as a wave of authority washed over him. His heart lodge in his chest as he slammed into the wall. His breathing stuttered and he stared up at Callahan. The shifter loomed over him, his sheer presence like a palpable wave bearing down on Lucian. This same aura, that of an alpha, was what had pressed down on him in the hall at Blight’s estate, but there was a slight edge to it this time that made his skin tingle.

“My future will be dictated by my choice,” Callahan said, “not on the whims of you or your father.”

“Are you fucking dense?” Lucian hissed. He had managed to regain some semblance of composure across his features, but he was still notably pressing himself against the wall. “If he wants to collar you, you’re as good as collared.”

“And do you think I particularly enjoy the alternative of being the guardian of a vampire guardian?” Callahan shot back.

“I’d imagined you’d like that more than being a fucking _whore_.”

Callahan’s hand slammed into the wall beside Lucian’s head. The vampire gasped and curled in on himself. A shudder coursed through him as he was bombarded by a wave of pheromones from the alpha. Callahan didn’t touch him still, but he was so close that Lucian could feel the heat emanating from him. Trepidation trembled down his spine, along with the strange feeling of anticipation, like his body wanted whatever was happening.

“You need to leave Lucian,” Callahan said in a slow, controlled voice.

“I’m not done,” Lucian snarled up at him.

“ _Now_.”

Lucian cringed at the weight of the alpha’s order, but he continued to glare up at Callahan. His body shook as he refused to yield to his instincts, which were screaming at him to obey Callahan. He didn’t risk making direct eye contact with him, instead fixing his eyes on Callahan’s neck. He watched as his veins pulsed rapidly with an accelerated heart beat. A tremor was running up and down his arm and Lucian realized Callahan was pushing himself away from Lucian, at least to the best of his abilities. Lucian’s eyes widened.

“You’re in heat,” he whispered, and with this realization came the full understanding of the sensations running under his skin. Heat pooled in his stomach as Callahan’s pheromones melted over him and he dragged in a panting gasp of air.

Callahan turned his head to the side and glared down at the floor. His body shook with the effort it was taking not to lay a hand on Lucian.

“It’s easier, isn’t it,” Lucian said as he eased away from the wall, “if someone helps you through it?”

Callahan’s head jerked back around and he stared down at Lucian with wide eyes. A small smirk played over Lucian’s mouth. He stood up on his tip toes, his body arching beneath Callahan’s so they weren’t quite touching.

“Are you…?” Callahan began.

“Offering to share a heat with you?” Lucian smiled. He leaned in close and whispered in Callahan’s ear, “You fucking wish.” He laughed as he dropped back on his heels.

“This isn’t a joke, Lucian,” Callahan snapped. His full weight shoved down on the wall and a small crack split the plaster. “You seriously need to go.”

“I just wanted to give you a hard time,” Lucian said. He laughed quietly to himself. “In more ways than one.” Despite his teasing, Lucian’s body was strongly reacting to the presence of a shifter in heat. He could feel his cheeks were flushed, but luckily this was the only outward response to the charged atmosphere.

“Lu, believe me when I say it’s getting increasingly harder to keep my hands off you,” Callahan said.

“Mm, I’m flattered,” Lucian cut in.

“Lucian,” Callahan hissed. His arm bent ever so slightly as he leaned in further. He lifted his eyes to deliver Lucian the full force of his glare.

“I got it, I got it,” Lucian said as he bowed his head slightly under the stare. “Don’t think this conversation is over just because you conveniently had a heat.”

“We’ll talk about it later,” Callahan said. His voice was starting to quake slightly and Lucian was well-aware it was time to go.

“We better,” he said as he ducked under Callahan’s arm. “Don’t pull a muscle fucking your hand,” he called over his shoulder as he left the room.

Even though Lucian had been care-free in his response to Callahan’s heat, he knew all too well just how dangerous that situation could have become. Since Callahan had impeccable control and he hadn’t laid a hand on Lucian within the first moments of the heat setting in, Lucian had had faith that he wouldn’t trying something. If he had, Lucian had ways of fighting him off. He’d grown up with Merrix and Ethan, two alpha shifters. He'd be around both of them when they'd gone into heats on many occasions, and he'd learned how best to handle those situations.

Lucian had to admit he was a touch worried that Callahan’s heat had crept up on him out of nowhere. Generally shifters had regulated schedules for their heats and were well aware of when they would happen. If this had been a normal heat, Callahan wouldn’t have allowed Lucian into his room. The heat must have been as much a surprise for him as it had been for Lucian, and such a heat meant he was under a great deal of stress.

Lucian couldn’t help but feel wholly responsible for this stress. After all, if he hadn’t needed a charge for Blight’s party, Callahan would have never been subjected to the affair. Lucian might have been quite use to such parties, but Callahan hadn’t grown up attending them like the vampire had. On top of the shifter fights and Lucian bordering on a frenzy, Callahan had also faced down a sanguine and gotten separated from his charge while he dealt with another. Lucian would never admit it to the shifter, but Callahan beating down that wall to open the security door had been one of the hottest things Lucian had ever witnessed. And he’d done that for Lucian’s sake, to ensure his safety, despite how much Lucian clearly irked him. Callahan’s determination, loyalty, strength, they’d all be wasted if he was collared to Lucian’s father. Not to mention the fact that Lord Samarillian took his collars biblically, something that Lucian hoped to God Callahan wasn’t interested in happening to him. With all that being said, and despite the fact that Lucian had never worked the notion of having a guardian in to his life plans, he was determined to make Callahan just that.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i had to write this chapter three times before i got something i liked x.x

Going into a heat in front of Lucian was up there among most embarrassing moments in Callahan’s life. It didn’t help matters that Lucian had taken it upon himself to make light of the situation. Callahan had to admit it was more than a little unnerving that Lucian had had his wits enough about him to tease him about the heat. This fact spoke to Lucian having experienced shifters in heat before, or him being an absolute idiot. Despite Lucian throwing himself into many an idiotic situation, like a full scale fight with Samson, he was quite intelligent, which left the former being the case. Callahan hoped Lucian had never had an adverse experience with a shifter’s heat. Though, if he had, he most likely wouldn’t have been so quick to stick around when the first telltale signs of Callahan’s became apparent. 

Callahan hadn’t had much time to take stock of his embarrassment in the moment given that the second Lucian left the room he had to bolt the door and take care of things. Having Lucian’s lingering scent pervading the room had made things difficult, and Callahan had been forced to take an hour long cold shower to let it dissipate. It would have felt far too lecherous to get off to Lucian’s scent, and so he had refused to do just that until the scent was only a memory.

The heat lasted only a full twenty four hours, a short one when compared to some he’d endured in the past. He hadn’t been due for one for several more weeks. The stress of post graduation working life compounded with Holland’s death and the events at the Blight estate were most likely the catalyst for the heat. It was entirely logical and natural that he had had one, but that didn’t change the humiliation of the onset being when Lucian was in the room. 

Beyond the situation with his heat, Callahan had to admit he was quite annoyed with Lucian’s behavior. Lucian was arrogant, self-absorbed; this was just a fact that Callahan had come to accept about the vampire. But storming into his room in such a manner and declaring that Callahan would be his guardian was another level entirely. He could only hope that before his heat took a hold of him he had been able to articulate just how offensive Lucian’s behavior was. When the heat did overwhelm him, it had taken everything in his power to keep his hands off of Lucian, who had by no means helped when he’d slid his body into Callahan’s personal space. Before that moment Callahan hadn’t looked at Lucian with any amount of desire. That had changed, decisively. Flushed cheeks, narrow waist, lowered lids, and above all else the tell tale scent of arousal drifting off of Lucian’s form had thrown the vampire into a whole new light. Clearly Callahan hadn’t been the only one affected in that moment, but that was fairly typical when one encountered the pheromones of an alpha in heat, even for a vampire. Keeping images of Lucian out of his head while getting through his heat had been exceptionally challenging, and Callahan was ashamed to admit not something he was successful in doing.

Neither he nor Lucian made any effort to approach the other. With the similarities in their schedule they crossed paths quite a bit. When they did, Lucian wouldn't look at him and would flush a bright red. Callahan was glad to see he wasn't the only one dealing with embarrassment following what had happened in his room.

All the same, the pair needed to take another stab at the failed conversation they’d had regarding guardianship. Lucian, from what Callahan could tell, was rather preoccupied between the remedial courses he had to take because of his fight with Nick and his midterms which were coming up in the next week or two. Callahan didn’t wish to overwhelm him, and space would most likely help defuse any lingering anger Lucian had toward him. That being said, after a week of the pair avoiding each other, Callahan decided it would be best to get the conversation over with. It very well could end in another argument, but it was better to get it out of the way if it was going to end a disaster.

And so, after dinner one morning, Callahan texted Lucian to ask if they could meet to chat. Surprisingly, Lucian not only answered immediately but told Callahan to come to his dorm room. Callahan did as requested. When he arrived at the dormitory, the attendant on duty informed him Lucian had filled a guest request out for him and he was permitted upstairs. 

Callahan couldn’t help the sense of trepidation that filled him as he ascended the steps to Lucian’s room. Having Lucian in his room had made him feel a touch vulnerable, but he doubted Lucian would have any such feeling having Callahan in his. Lucian would have never allowed him to set foot in his room if that were the case. Rather, Callahan was certain Lucian would be, as him almost invariably was, in absolute control of the situation.

Upon reaching Lucian’s door at the end of the hall, where the attendant had described it as being, he knocked lightly. Lucian pulled him the door immediately.  The vampire was dressed in a tight black shirt. It was hiked up slightly and the sweats he wore rode low on his hips. The pale expanse of skin stood in stark contrast to the dark fabric and his hip bones jutted out drastically. Callahan hastily looked away from the splash of skin. Lucian’s wet hair was piled in a messy bun atop his head and his cheeks shone with freshly applied lotion.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey,” Callahan said, his voice catching slightly in the back of his throat. He cleared his throat as quietly as he could, but the small curve of Lucian’s lips smoke to his having heard.

Lucian turned away and moved into his room to his desk. He perched on the edge and folded his one leg over the other. He hooked his bare foot around his ankle and leaned back on his hands.

“Have a seat,” he said, jutting his chin toward his bed.

Callahan closed the door behind him and took the seat as he was instructed. 

“How are you feeling?” Lucian asked. There was a slight warble of hesitation in his voice and color dusted his cheeks.

“Fine, thank you,” Callahan said with a nod. “It was a short one. I’m sorry you had to be there for any of it.”

“It’s fine,” Lucian said with a shake of his head. “I’ve been around shifters in heat before. I can tell pretty easily if they’re close to losing it completely.”

“With that being the case, you should probably know better than to tease a shifter in heat,” Callahan pointed out.

Lucian rolled his eyes. “I knew you had things under control,” he said. 

“How were you so sure of that?” Callahan asked. “Plenty of shifters wouldn’t have been able to resist with the way you were behaving.”

“Because at the party,” Lucian said in a quiet voice, “you didn’t let me bare my neck to you. I know how I act; anyone else would have jumped at the chance to see me humiliate myself. But you didn’t. So I knew you wouldn’t do something to me I wouldn’t want.” He wrinkled his nose slightly, seemingly embarrassed by how much he’d said, and kept his gaze averted.

Callahan gazed at him in silence. Lucian was right about all of it. He did act enough like an arrogant ass that someone would be happy to take any opportunity to humiliate him. He was also right Callahan would never do something to Lucian without his explicit consent. That included seeing his bared neck, and it certainly included taking him in a heat. It meant a great deal to Callahan that Lucian had recognized this all as fact.

"Thank you,” Callahan said, “for trusting me like that.”

Lucian’s eyes narrowed slightly. He gave a small huff, tossing his head. Given the chance, he probably wouldn’t have phrased things that way.

“You wanted to talk about the other night, right?” Lucian plowed on. “Not the heat bit, but what we talked about.”

“‘Talked’ might not be that accurate,” Callahan pointed out. “There was mostly yelling, from you.” He said it to tease him, to earn another eye roll from him, but instead Lucian hunched forward, folding his hands together in his lap.

“Yeah, about that,” he said quietly. “I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that; I was out, out of line. I--” he gritted his teeth together for a fraction of a second-- “I apologize.”

“I appreciate that, Lu,” Callahan said with a smile, and he really did. Witnessing that apology had been a lot like watching teeth being pulled, but somehow the fact that it had taken Lucian so much effort made it feel all the more genuine.

“I was thinking about all of it a lot this week,” Lucian continued. “In the car, I said you were going to be my guardian as an out for you from being my father’s collared shifter, and I was pissed that you’d tossed that aside hence--” Lucian waved his hand vaguely-- “last time. It wasn’t until after the fact that I realized, I would actually, I mean, I would…” Lucian trailed off with a weak shrug. “I’d want you as my guardian, if you’d want me.” He lifted his eyes slightly to gaze up at Callahan through his lashes. He only met the shifter’s gaze for an instant before quickly looking away.

“I don’t know,” Callahan had to admit. “I came to the academy to do something of a gap year between graduation and potentially becoming a guardian. I haven’t even fully decided if I want to take the exam.” This admission wasn’t one that he’d given to many, but he felt the need to meet Lucian’s honesty with his own. “I’d have to think about it, Lu. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Lucian said with a hasty shake of his head. “If you end up not wanting to be my guardian, I’m sure I can convince my father one way or another not to take you as a collar.”

“Thank you,” Callahan said. “I appreciate that.”

“I know I shouldn’t follow up apologizing for being a dick with a favor, but I was wondering, would you mind being my escort off campus this weekend?”

“Are you actually going through the proper channels to get off campus?” Callahan said in a voice of mock surprise.

In order to get off campus, vampire students had to apply for the privilege, and also nominate a shifter staff member to be their escort. Lucian and Myrna had failed to do that on the three occasions they had escaped campus. 

“It comes as a surprise to everyone involved, but yes I am,” Lucian said with a small smile. “I already spoke to Pryer since I wasn’t sure she’d let me given the remedial classes, but she said if I got an escort, she’d approve.”

“She’s probably worried you’ll run off on your own if she doesn’t approve it,” Callahan said.

“Probably,” Lucian said with a shrug. “She wouldn’t be wrong either.”

“How do you get off campus anyway?” Callahan asked.

“A boy never reveals his ways,” Lucian said, draping a dramatic hand over his chest. “But, seriously,” he said, his hand dropping to his lap, his fingers fidgeting together, “would, would you be okay with it?”

“Of course,” Callahan said, “and not just because I share the headmistress’s concern. It’ll be nice to get off campus, and this’ll give us another opportunity to see if we’d work well as charge and guardian.”

“It would,” Lucian said with a small nod. “Thank you, Cal.”

It took a couple of days for the paperwork to work its way through the system, but come Friday evening Lucian was texting Callahan that they’d been approved for their trip. Their destination was Lucian’s friend’s in Calgary, Canada; the means of transportation car. Callahan wasn't sure what fifteen hours alone in a car with Lucian would entail; he could only hope it wouldn't be insufferable

Lucian also explained they wouldn’t be spending the day at his friend's. Instead they would arrive, possibility of the car breaking down notwithstanding, at his friend’s Saturday evening and leave Saturday morning. He didn’t explain why it was he was making such an exhausting trek for only a short visit. Callahan didn’t ask either, but he did ask the reasoning behind taking a car over a plane. Money was what was cited, and unless Callahan was interested in paying round trip airfare for the pair, they were driving. Callahan didn’t quite understand why someone who came from a family as rich as royals would be so frugal, but he didn’t push the matter.

Thus, come Friday morning immediately following class, Callahan found himself climbing into one of the academy’s rentable cars. The passenger seat much to his surprise. Apparently Lucian quite enjoyed driving and had ordered Callahan to the passenger seat when he’d gone to take the driver’s. Callahan didn’t mind this at all given he’d had an exhausting night, having taken over Sam’s class of training two dozen freshmen. 

They drove in silence while Lucian took the wending back roads to the interstate, but when they reached it, and Lucian didn't have to concentrate so much on directions, Callahan spoke up. 

“So who’s the friend you’re driving thirty hours for?” Callahan asked.

“Not really a friend,” Lucian said, shrugging. “More a business partner.”

“You have a business?” 

Lucian only shrugged. 

“How are you feeling, by the way?” Callahan said. “Since you’ve fed.” He knew Lucian’s feeding habits weren’t the vampire’s favorite subject of conversation and a slight note of hesitance worked into his voice as he asked because of this fact. 

“Good,” Lucian said with an ease Callahan wasn’t expecting. “Better even than I have in a while.” He drew his left knee up and leaned it against the door, draping his wrist over it. He was relaxed, sitting there in the driver’s seat, in a way Callahan had never seen him. Usually his body was corded with tension. Even in his own dorm room, his shoulders had been stiff, but here in the car there was looseness to his limbs.

“You look better,” Callahan said. There was no longer a pallor to Lucian’s face, instead color in his cheeks even when he wasn’t blushing uncontrollably. 

“Why Oregon?” Lucian asked suddenly.

“What?” Callahan frowned at him in confusion. If the whiplash of the subject change weren’t enough, he honestly didn’t know what Lucian was getting at with his query.

“Why did you choose to come here?” Lucian continued. “You were top of your class in New York; you probably got offers all over the place. Why buttfuck nowhere?”

“How did you know I was top of my class?” Callahan asked. He hadn’t pegged Lucian as someone who was aware of or cared about the personal information of others. 

“Luke has a hard on for you,” Lucian said with a dry laugh. “He brings you up a lot in our self-defense class.”

“Oh,” Callahan said, his cheeks coloring with a flush. He knew the shifter Lucian spoke of; he was in one of the training classes Callahan supervised. It was easy enough to tell Luke had a bit of crush on him; entirely embarrassing to hear Lucian phrase it as he had.

“He mentioned you're top of your class,” Lucian continued. “So, why Oregon?” 

“It was the best option financially,” Callahan explained. 

Lucian nodded. He kept his gaze on the road before them. His elbow was propped on his knee and he was toying idly with a lock of hair. He was quite an attentive driver. Callahan had to admit he’d been a touch concerned that Lucian would be a distracted or aggressive driver, but he’d been proven wrong after only a few short minutes in the car with him.

“Why L.A.?” Callahan asked, parroting Lucian’s style of questioning. “Did you really go for the sake of libido?”

“Is this car ride going to be a back and forth of twenty questions?” Lucian asked. 

“It would be a good way to kill time,” Callahan pointed out.

“True,” Lucian said with a nod. “And no. That wasn’t the reason. I just wanted to annoy Morgan. We were meeting Ardenwood there.”

“That’s who we’re seeing this weekend?” 

Lucian nodded. He’d had to include the contact information for who he was going to visit when applying for permission to leave campus. Callahan had been supplied with this information when the application went through. 

“He was in L.A. last month. I brought Myrna with me; she likes clubbing.”

“What’s your business with him?” Callahan asked.

“Oh, no,” Lucian said with a smile, glancing at Callahan before looking back at the road. “It’s my turn for a question.” 

“Fire away,” Callahan said. He liked Lucian in a car. Many people destined to be in a car with someone for fifteen hours often felt trapped, but not Lucian. In fact, he almost seemed liberated here, as if nothing existed beyond him and Callahan in the confines of the automobile, and in a way nothing else did. For the next fifteen hours, the pair didn’t have to worry about anything other than getting to Calgary in one piece. Seeing Lucian so comfortable with this fact eased some of Callahan’s anxiety over the long ride. 

“Why haven’t you decided whether you’re taking the guardian exam?” Lucian said. “You’re obviously perfectly suited for being a guardian.”

“The exam,” Callahan said in a low voice as his gaze drifted out his window. “There’s the physical portion--that would be easy enough, but the mental component is something else entirely.” An empath administered that aspect of the exam. They would induce a vivid mind scape to test a shifter’s nerve either through memories or the manifestation of the shifter’s fears. There was a lot an empath could recreate that Callahan wouldn’t want to endure.

“I get that,” Lucian said ruefully, and Callahan glanced back over at him. Lucian really would get that, better than most vampires considering he was fated to take the same exam. So much had happened at Blight’s estate, the fact Lucian was to be a vampire guardian had been pushed to the back of Callahan’s mind despite how shocking it was. The last couple of days when he and Lucian had been avoiding each other, he’d wondered a quite bit about Lucian’s career path. It explained how easily he’d been able to dispatch Nick in the dining hall, though Callahan couldn’t quite make sense of why he would take a self-defense course as his gym requirement given he’d been trained as a guardian for over a decade. Though Callahan would hate to do anything to inflate Lucian’s ego, he couldn’t help but be impressed with the vampire’s fighting abilities. Taking a collared shifter in a fight wasn’t much to boast about, but his decisive victory against Samson was. Callahan couldn’t name many shifter students who would have been able to win that fight.

“Your turn,” Lucian said when Callahan had let the silence drag on a little too long. “Ask me something.”

“Why guardianship?” Callahan said. He was still quite curious what this business was that Lucian had with Ardenwood, but Lucian had already deflected that question twice now and Callahan didn’t want to waste an opportunity to find something new out about the vampire.

“Money,” Lucian said with a shrug. “My father stands to make at least half a billion from selling my contract.”

“Seriously?” Callahan said in disbelief.

“I’m a little offended by how surprised you sound,” Lucian said, but the small smile that hooked the corner of his lips belied this.

“It’s just you don’t have an elemental magic,” Callahan said. 

“Vampire guardians are collared,” Lucian said, “because that drags their social standing down to a shifter’s. And who wouldn’t wanna collar me?” Lucian glanced over. He gave a derisive smirk, but the expression didn’t reach his gaze, which was hollow. 

Callahan met his eyes. Lucian looked away after a moment to watch the road, but Callahan continued to stare at him. He hadn’t considered that aspect of vampire guardianship, but Lucian was right; he would be collared, like Eden was to Blight. He would be owned by whoever bid the highest on his contract, and that would come with everything being a collared shifter entailed. Lucian’s fighting skills weren’t the only thing on sale here; his entire body was. What Lucian’s father was doing was infinitely more disgusting than Callahan had initially thought. 

“I’m sorry,” Callahan murmured as he finally pulled his eyes away from Lucian. He suddenly felt a lot worse for being so quick to throw aside Lucian’s attempt to spare him from being Lord Samarillian’s collared shifter. He’d so arrogantly declared his desire for a choice in the course of his life, while Lucian had none and he was fated to be exactly what Callahan would abhor becoming.

“It is what it is,” Lucian said with a shrug. He reached for his phone, which was tucked into one of the cupholders. “Would you mind if we listened to an audiobook?” he asked. “I have week to read  _MacBeth_  and write an essay on it."

“Of course,” Callahan said. “Here, let me set it up.” 

“Thanks.” Lucian handed his phone over to Callahan. “The password is seven-five-one-four.”

Callahan nodded as he inputted the numbers. He was a little surprised that Lucian would give up the passcode to his phone so easily, but he probably intended to change it. Lucian provided instructions for playing the audiobook.  The pair settled back to listen the one man retelling of the play. He was an engaging speaker and brought the story to life in a manner that was by no means dull. 

The audiobook killed several hours of the drive, and soon Lucian was pulling off the highway into a rest stop. Callahan glanced over at him when he realized this.

“Gotta get gas,” Lucian said, as he paused  _ MacBeth _ . He pulled up to one of the pumps and parked the car. 

“I’ll do it,” Callahan said. “It’s rather sunny out; you should stay in the car.”

“I would, but I need the bathroom,” Lucian said. “And snacks and caffeine.”

“In that case,” Callahan said, pulling off the hoodie he had on, “wear this. It’ll cover you.” He draped the hoodie over Lucian’s shoulders before the vampire could protest the garment. The small frown on his lips spoke to that intention.

Lucian slid into the hoodie and zipped it up. Sure enough, it completely engulfed him. 

“It’s going to smell like me now,” Lucian said with a small smirk.

“I have to do laundry anyway,” Callahan said in a bit more of an embarrassed rush than he’d hoped. 

Lucian laughed quietly as he fished his wallet out of his back pocket. He handed his credit card over to Callahan.

“Fill ‘er up,” he said. “Do you need any snacks?”

“I’ll take a water,” Callahan said, “and whatever sort of snack you’re getting.”

“Sounds good,” Lucian said as he climbed out of the car. He pulled the hood up over his head and stuffed his hands into his pockets before heading out from beneath the overhang.

Callahan watched him go as he got out of the car himself. When he saw Lucian reach the building without spontaneously combusting, he set about filling up the tank. He did not, in fact, need to do laundry any time soon, but he would immediately do just that upon returning to the academy. The last thing he needed right now was an article of clothing carrying Lucian’s scent and reminding him of his most recent heat.

* * *

It would take the threat of violence for Lucian to admit that, after leaving Callahan's room, he’d had to immediately return to his own to wait out his own arousal in punitive silence. Out of sheer spite for the fact that Callahan’s pheromones had had such an effect on him, Lucian had refused to take a hand to himself. Now, swathed in Callahan’s hoodie, he was intimately reminded of how he’d felt then. He sighed heavily into his hand, upon with his chin was propped. He sensed Callahan glance over in his direction, but he kept his gaze on the trees flashing by beyond the passenger window. He and Callahan had switched who was driving at the gas station. They were approaching the Canadian border and the last thing Lucian needed was to stick his hand out the window to give his ID to border control and have his skin catch aflame.

Lucian folded his arms as he tucked his chin into the zipped up hoodie. He should have outright refused to wear the proffered article of clothing, but if he hadn’t, getting from the car to the convenience store would have proven a bit of an undertaking. He’d reminded himself over and over again walking inside that it was only natural to be turned on by an alpha’s pheromones, just as it was only natural for Callahan to go into a heat at all, a fact Lucian didn't doubt the shifter was quite embarrassed with.

He should have, he suddenly realized with a flush of embarrassment, taken the hoodie off as soon as he returned to the car, but Callahan hadn’t asked for it back and Lucian had actually found the garment quite comfortable. He couldn’t just rip it off now either; that would create too much a scene. 

Despite their mutual embarrassment over what had happened in Callahan’s room, Lucian was glad he had Callahan’s company on this road trip. He had been by no means fibbing when he’d said he wanted Callahan as his guardian. Callahan had been a calming and supportive presence at the estate and not just when he’d been helping Lucian through his almost-frenzy. He would make for a good guardian, a fact that hadn’t dawned on Lucian until after he had thrown something of a tantrum in Callahan’s room. 

With his head clear, Lucian had had the opportunity to figure out the best approach at rectifying the mess he’d made. He’d realized he would not only need to apologize for how he’d acted, but also figure out a way to convince Callahan to be his guardian. Lucian knew Callahan had a keen dislike for Lucian’s noble arrogance. Because of this, Lucian wasn’t too pleased to admit, a little vulnerability and humility would go a long way with the shifter. And so, while he hadn’t fibbed about what he wanted, he had with how he’d delivered his words. A touch of hesitance here, an averted gaze there, and for once it came in handy just how quick he was too blush. 

Generally his tendency to be a touch manipulative didn’t leave him with a gnawing feeling of guilt, but it had done just that after he’d spoken with Callahan, even without Callahan agreeing on the spot to be his guardian. Callahan was just so genuine and kind, and Lucian was so far from either of those things. Because of this, he felt he owed Callahan something. The most he’d had to offer was his honesty, and so he’d given Callahan just that for the first leg of the car ride. He hadn’t even felt uncomfortable doing so, and it had been nice to talk to someone about some of the more private aspects of his life. He had, however, refused to divulge what exactly his arrangement with Arden was. Callahan would no doubt figure it out soon enough, but Lucian was in no way interested in confessing to it.

He wouldn’t have minded continuing the conversation with Callahan either; he rather enjoyed learning things about him considering he could potentially become Lucian’s guardian. But he really did have to get listening to  _MacBeth,_ so that he could tackle the essay .  That being said, the exhaustion of the week soon caught up to Lucian and he ended up falling asleep to the relaxing voice of the man delivering the audiobook. 

He was awakened several hours later to a gentle hand on his shoulder. When he blinked his eyes open, a night sky was there to greet him. He frowned in confusion and looked over at Callahan as the shifter withdrew his hand from Lucian's shoulder.

“We’re here, I think,” Callahan said.

“You should have woken me up hours ago,” Lucian said, his voice thick with sleep. “You shouldn’t have drove that whole way.”

“When I moved from New York to Oregon, I drove,” Callahan said. “So I’m used to driving long distances.”

“Still…”

“You slept the whole way; it wouldn’t have been safe for you to drive,” Callahan pointed out. 

Lucian nodded as he glanced down at the barely touched energy drink he’d purchased for the express purpose of staying awake to drive. He had no idea how Callahan had managed to stay awake for over ten hours, or how he himself had been dead to the world for that time. He hoped he hadn’t made any embarrassing sounds or faces in his sleep. 

“This is the place, right?” Callahan asked.

Lucian looked up and peered out the windshield to gauge his surroundings. They were parked before a four car garage that was attached to an expansive mansion. It was modern in its design, Arden having built it only a handful of years ago. The exterior was bathed in the warm yellow of the exterior lights. 

“This is it,” Lucian said. He unzipped Callahan’s hoodie and handed it over to him. Arden would comment if Lucian appeared in a shifter’s jacket and Lucian just wasn’t in the mood for that. He wasn’t in the mood for any of this if he was being honest with himself. He enjoyed Arden as a person, there was no doubt of that, but he wasn’t always the most thrilled by the business they engaged in.

“Is there anything I should know before heading in?” Callahan asked.

“Yeah,” Lucian said as he dragged his fingers through his hair. “What happens in that house, stays in that house.”

“Of course,” Callahan said with a nod. 

“And just like at Blight’s don’t do anything unless I explicitly tell you.”

Callahan clenched his jaw at that, but he nodded. He was most likely thinking of why Lucian had had to make that declaration at Blight's, and didn’t much like the thought of Arden doing something similar to what Faryn had.

Lucian climbed out of the car without further ado and headed toward the front door. He heard the car door shut behind him and Callahan’s footsteps as the shifter followed him across the gravel drive. Lucian ascended the steps to the front door, but he didn’t even need to knock; it was pulled open as soon as he paused before.

“Hey, cutie face.” Arden’s usual greeting was accompanied by a grin, and he flung his arms around Lucian’s neck.

Lucian returned the embrace, though a touch more loosely.

“How you been?” Arden asked as he stepped out of the hug. He was only a few inches taller than Lucian. His hair was a stark black and pinned back from his face with a handful of bobby pins. He was dressed in sweats and a t-shirt. 

“Fine,” Lucian said with a shrug. He looked over Arden’s shoulder to the ever present shadow of the man’s wife. “Hey, Mara.”

The shifter gave him a small wave in greeting. She was as stony faced as ever. In the time Lucian had known her, he’d almost never won a smile from her. 

“And who is this?” Arden asked as his eyes roamed over Callahan’s form.

“Callahan,” Lucian said. 

“You have good tastes, Lucian,” Arden said with a smile.

“He’s the academy’s so keep your hands to yourself,” Lucian said as he walked into the entry hall. Arden had a tendency to forget basic hospitality like inviting his guests inside. The room he found himself in could have easily fit the first floor of the shifter’s cottage in it; in other words it was far larger than any entry hall needed to be. Delicate columns were scattered around the perimeter of the room and vast paintings adorned the art. Lucian recognized several as famous works by Renaissance artists, and he genuinely wasn’t certain if they were replicas or if Arden had gotten his hands on the originals. “Let’s do this.”

“Always in a rush to get it over with,” Arden said with a shake of his. “Mara, would you entertain Callahan while Lucian and I are indisposed?”

Mara nodded. She gestured to the doorway to the right of the entrance. Callahan looked at Lucian, who nodded, and the shifter headed out of the room with Arden’s guardian. 

“I heard Myrna got shipped back home,” Arden said as he led the way across the entry hall. An open staircase ascended to the balcony that ran around the circumference of the room, but Arden took them the door tucked beneath the steps. 

“She did,” Lucian said with a heavy sigh. 

“That sucks,” Arden said as he opened the basement door. He flicked on the stairwell light and started down.

“Yeah, it really does,” Lucian said quietly. Lucian didn’t have many people he would consider his friends, and Myrna had been one of those few. He and Myrna still video chatted free time and time zones allowed, but it wasn’t the same as having her at school. He was essentially alone at the academy now. 

“Here we are,” Arden said as the reached the bottom of the steps. 

A finished basement lay before them, decked out with all the trappings of a hospital room. The smell of saline filled the air and Lucian’s stomach twisted. Lucian headed to the examination chair that stood in the middle of the room and plopped down on it.

Arden followed him. He leaned close to Lucian, a small smile on his lips. His fingers brushed Lucian’s hair away from his neck and Lucian felt his pulse quicken.

“Those are new,” Arden said, remarking upon the almost faded marks of Nick’s attack. 

“Those were unwanted,” Lucian said as he pushed up his sleeve. He lifted his bared forearm between himself and Arden’s face. 

“Aren’t we close enough that I can take from your neck?” Arden pouted, though he did move back slightly as he took Lucian’s arm in his hand.

“No,” Lucian said flatly. “we are not.”

“Maybe someday,” Arden said with a wistful sigh. “Now, time to check the quality of our product.” And with that he sunk his teeth into Lucian’s arm. 


	10. Chapter 10

Lucian couldn’t help giving a small whimper as Arden sucked his blood. Being fed on was naturally stimulating for vampires, and it didn’t help matters that Arden was gently rubbing his thumb against the sensitive skin of Lucian’s wrist. Arden pulled back after a moment and glanced up at Lucian.

“You smell like that shifter,” he remarked, his lips shimmering with Lucian’s blood.

“Focus, Arden, you’ve got quality to check,” Lucian said flatly.

Arden nodded and dug his teeth into Lucian’s arm once more. Lucian glowered in annoyance.

“You’ve had enough to make an assessment,” Lucian grumbled.

Arden took another long drag before pulling back and straightening. He swallowed and licked his lips clean as he got a bandage from the small table by the chair.

“You’ve fed recently,” Arden noted as he wrapped Lucian’s arm.

“I have,” Lucian said with a nod.

“I’m happy for you.” Arden smiled. “I know you have trouble with it. It’s also improved the taste of your blood. This’ll make for quite a good batch.”

Lucian nodded as he watched Arden go about setting things up. Arden’s first step was to hook Lucian up to the blood transfusion. Arden had a plethora of B positive blood on hand for Lucian, since he was going to take about four ounces from Lucian. He was oh-so gentle when applying the needle to Lucian’s inner elbow, but all the same he asked after his well-being.

“That feel okay?” he asked, soothing his gloved hands over Lucian’s arm.

Lucian hummed in affirmation. Arden had gone to medical school and had been selling blood for years. He had received ample training and had plenty of experience drawing blood. All the same he was always so worried of hurting Lucian and anyone else he took blood from. Next, he went about setting up Lucian’s other arm to take blood from. When Lucian had first starting giving blood, the whole ordeal had made him extremely squeamish, but he’d been doing this for almost three years now, so he was rather used to it.

“All set,” Arden said as he finished rigging up the bag that would collect Lucian’s blood.

Lucian leaned back in the exam chair with a small sigh. He heard Arden puttering about and a moment later the TV flicked on. Arden scrolled through the channels until he found an animated comedy. He then went to the fridge in the back corner of the room where he fetched orange juice and a bowl of fruit. He poured a glass of the juice and brought both over to the wheeled table beside Lucian.

“Thanks,” Lucian said as he picked up the glass and took a small sip.

“Would you ever consider,” Arden said as he wheeled his own chair over to sit beside Lucian, “ letting one of your regulars feed directly from you? I have someone who would be very interested in that.”

“It would be rather difficult to remain anonymous if I let someone feed from me,” Lucian pointed out as he set the glass down.

“I would have him sign a non-disclosure agreement, and he would, of course, pay handsomely for the privilege,” Arden said. “He is also of the mind that blood tastes infinitely better if the one giving it were orgasming.”

Lucian stuttered a gasp of surprise and flushed a bright red.

“There would be no sex, if you didn’t want there to be,” Arden continued, “and you could get yourself off; he wouldn’t lay a hand on you if you didn’t want. He’s willing to pay upwards of a hundred thousand.”

Lucian frowned as his fingers threaded together nervously. It was one thing to sell his blood to Arden for the man to distribute to faceless buyers. This scenario, however, was in the territory of sex work. He couldn’t deny, however, that the amount of money being offered was tempting. Money was, after all, the exclusive motivation for why he was doing this in the first place.

“You don’t have to do anything you aren’t comfortable with, Lucian,” Arden said. “If you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to, and if you aren’t comfortable with these sort of offers, I won’t bring it up again. The pay is also entirely negotiable and I would be more than willing to do just that on your behalf.”

“I’ll think about it,” Lucian said quietly.

“Just let me know,” Arden said. He reached across Lucian and plucked one of the pineapple chunks from the bowl. “You feeling okay, right?” he said, his eyes glancing over the tubing in Lucian’s arms.

“I do, thanks,” Lucian said.

The pair settled into a comfortable silence as they watched the show Arden had put on. Every once in a while, Arden would check to make sure nothing was amiss with the blood transfusions. He was nothing if not attentive and professional when it came to taking blood, and Lucian always felt in good hands.

It took about an hour for Lucian’s blood to fill the bag. When it was full, Arden unhooked him from that as well as from the transfusion. Despite the steady flow of blood in to match that which was being drained, Lucian felt rather light headed. He sipped his orange juice and remained seated as Arden went about labeling and storing the blood bags. When he’d finished, he pulled out a checkbook and hastily jotted down Lucian’s pay.

“Here we are,” he said as he handed over a check to Lucian.

“Thanks,” Lucian said as he placed the empty glass on the table and took the check. He glanced over it.

“I gave a little extra this time since the flavor is even better than usual,” Arden explained. “Was it Callahan you fed on?”

“No,” Lucian said with a shake of his head.

“Well, I’m glad you found someone,” Arden said, “and if it’s possible for them to be a steady source, I’d recommend it not just for the sake of your patrons who I’m sure will greatly enjoy this batch.”

“I’ll try,” Lucian said as he slid out of the chair. He didn’t bother adding the cliched ‘it’s complicated’; he’d already fed Arden that line. He put the check in his wallet and he and Arden headed upstairs together.

They found Callahan and Mara in the living room off the entry hall. Mara had by no means gone out of her way to entertain Callahan as she’d been instructed. She was seated in an armchair by the fire reading a book while Callahan sat on the edge of the couch scrolling through his phone. He looked up when the vampires entered the room and quickly took stock of Lucian. His nose twitched slightly; he could smell blood. Lucian kept his gaze averted.

“We’re all set,” Arden said with a smile for Callahan as he patted Lucian on the shoulder.

Callahan nodded and rose to his feet.

“Lucian, you know you’re more than welcome to stay,” Arden said.

“Thanks, but I have a lot of schoolwork to do this weekend,” Lucian explained as he turned back into the entry hall.

“Do you need anything for the road?” Arden asked as he followed after him. “Snacks? Coffee?”

“We’re good, Arden,” Lucian said. “Thank you.”

“I’ll see you in a few months then,” Arden said, extending his arms for another hug.

Lucian accepted the embrace. He called a farewell to Mara, though the shifter didn’t reply. He and Callahan headed out the door together with Arden bidding them safe travels.

The pair walked to the car in silence. Lucian took the driver’s seat while Callahan climbed into the passenger’s side, and with that they were back on the road. Lucian flicked on the radio and scrolled through the channels until he found one playing music that wasn’t interrupted every second by static.

After almost twenty minutes of driving, Callahan finally worked up the nerve to ask what had been on his mind since the mansion. Lucian could tell there was something up from the crease of his brow and the way he wasn’t quite relaxed in his seat.

“I know,” he began slowly, “it’s not my business, but what exactly…” His eyes drifted to Lucian’s arm.

His sleeve was rolled back down to hide the bandaging around his arm, but Callahan could easily narrow down where the scent of fresh blood came from.

“I didn’t sleep with him if that’s what you’re wondering,” Lucian said. “Arden and Mara are happily married and exclusive.” On top of that Arden only liked women and being pegged so he and Lucian would in no way be compatible. There was also the fact that he and Arden had met when Lucian was fifteen and Arden was twenty-five. Arden had once said he thought of Lucian as a younger brother, but only once because Lucian very much did not enjoy the concept of that familial tie.

“Then, what’s the business you have with him?” Callahan asked.

“I sell Arden my blood and he sells it to other vampires,” Lucian explained.

Callahan stared at him. Selling blood was by no means illegal, but it was exceptionally rare. Most vampires considered being fed on humiliating, and so selling blood was seen as even more so.

“Why?” Callahan asked with a slow shake of his head.

“Because it tastes really fucking good,” Lucian said a touch flippantly.

“No, why do you sell your blood?” Callahan said. “Isn’t that a lot like...like sex work?”

“Are you trying to say it’s demeaning?” Lucian snapped.

Callahan opened his mouth to protest, but Lucian plowed on.

“Don’t get it twisted, Cal,” he said with a sneer. “I could very much be a whore and you still wouldn’t be able to look down on me. I am and always will be a noble vampire.” Lucian’s hands tightened around the steering wheel as he spoke, and he couldn’t help the thread of anger that entered.

“I would never think of you beneath me, Lu,” Callahan said hastily with a shake of his head.

“I’m a little offended,” Lucian said with a snicker.

“What do you--" Callahan flushed. "That's not. No, I didn't mean--"

“Oh, so you do think of me  _ beneath _ you?” Lucian said, looking over at Callahan with a smirk. 

“That, that’s not appropriate,” Callahan said in a stumbling voice.

“That’s not a ‘no’,” Lucian said.

“It’s a ‘no’,” Callahan said under his breath, though the continued reddening of his face and the way he avoided looking over at Lucian suggested otherwise.

Lucian laughed quietly, but he let it go. 

“I didn’t mean for it to come off like I was thinking less of you and I’m sorry that it did,” Callahan continued. “I was just surprised you would do that sort of thing because of how you reacted to Nick biting you.”

“I didn’t consent to that,” Lucian pointed out, “but even if he’d offered to pay for it, I wouldn’t have put out like that. Yeah, I consider my blood a product, but being fed off of is entirely different.  _ That  _ would feel like sex work.” Even with that being the case, Lucian was in fact considering the offer Arden had put forth on behalf of one Lucian’s buyers. Without a doubt, it would be demeaning and humiliating to be fed off while he brought himself to climax, but a hundred thousand wasn’t a sum of money he could easily turn his nose up at.

“That makes sense,” Callahan said with a nod.

“And the money is really good,” Lucian said with a small laugh. He’d made close to half a million today, thanks to Arden’s generous tip. Lucian had the feeling the tip didn’t just have to do with the blood tasting better, but also a way for Arden to incentivize Lucian feeding well. He’d always been worried by the fact that Lucian was malnourished.

“Why--” Callahan began, but Lucian cut him off.

“Not all answers are up for grabs, Cal,” he said.

“Right, sorry,” Callahan said with a nod. “You’re feeling okay to drive though?”

“Mm-hm, I’m good,” Lucian said.

“Let me know if you need to switch,” Callahan said.

“I will,” Lucian said. “You should try to nap; you’ve been awake way too long.”

Callahan nodded. “Wake me when you want me to take over?”

“Will do.”

Callahan settled back in his seat and closed his eyes. Lucian’s grip eased on the wheel as he relaxed as well. He was once again reminded of how kind and understanding Callahan was. There weren’t many who would be so accepting of Lucian selling his blood for a pretty penny.

As the drive wore on, the weather worsened and after a few hours Lucian was driving through the beginnings of a full on snow storm. Lucian woke Callahan to help him evaluate the situation. As Lucian focused on driving through the snow that was severely impairing visibility, Callahan checked the forecast. They were due for almost a foot of snow, and as much as Lucian wanted to make a beeline for the academy, he had to agree with Callahan’s assessment that they needed to find a motel to wait out the storm. 

Callahan located one on the GPS that was only ten miles away, but it took them close to thirty minutes with Lucian driving cautiously. The motel they arrived at thankfully didn’t look all too seedy. The lot only had about half a dozen cars in it and Lucian was able to find a spot just in front of the main office.

Callahan got their bags out of the back seat and the pair climbed out of the car. They were immediately bombarded by wind and snow. The wind was so bad Lucian even stumbled against the car. Callahan hurried around the vehicle and caught him by the elbow. The shifter helped him to the door and Lucian pulled it open.

“Caught in the blizzard were you?” the woman behind the counter said by way of greeting. She gave them a friendly smile.

“Yeah,” Lucian said. He stomped his feet lightly on the welcome mat for heading to the counter. “We’ll take a room ‘til it passes. Cheapest one.”

“Cheapest one only has one bed,” the woman said, her eyes flicking between Lucian and Callahan.

“That’s fine,” Lucian said with a shrug. He might have made a large sum that evening, but he wasn’t in the business of spending where he didn’t have to.

The woman nodded and set about checking them in. When the process was completed, she gave Lucian back his card and handed him the room key as well. She gave them instructions for where to find their room and wished them a good night.

Lucian led the way out of the office and to the room. He unlocked the door and gestured for Callahan to enter. The shifter do so and deposited their bags on the foot of the bed. Lucian shot and bolted the door behind them.

“Would you like to shower?” Callahan asked.

“Yeah, that’d be nice,” Lucian said.

“Take as much time as you like,” Callahan said as he handed him his bag. Lucian nodded and retreated to the privacy of the bathroom. He undid the bandage on the arm before hopping in the shower. The needle marks on his arms were healed around and the bite marks had scabbed over so he wouldn’t need to re-apply bandaids. He took a long, scalding-hot shower. It was wonderfully relaxing and helped to wash away the stiffness of being in a car for so long. When he was finally dressed in the spare clothes he’d brought, he did his hair up in a towel and headed out of the bathroom.

Callahan was seated at the foot of the bed, flicking slowly through the channels.

“There’s not much on,” he said as Lucian moved to his side. “Just a  _ Jurassic Park _ movie and I think a rerun of  _ Modern Family _ .”

“Dinosaurs it is,” Lucian said as he took the remote.

“Sounds good.” Callahan smiled. “I’m gonna shower.”

Lucian nodded as he climbed into bed. He slid under the covers and went about searching for the channel playing  _ Jurassic Park _ . It was the first movie, Lucian was glad to see. He dropped back on the pillows with a contented sigh. He was a little put out that they hadn’t been able to stick to his plan of a quick there and back again, but if was being honest, it would have been a wiser choice to begin with to a work a stop at a motel into the plan, especially since Callahan had taken it upon himself to drive almost the entire way to Arden’s.

Callahan exited the bathroom about ten minutes later. He deposited his bag on the table in the corner and glanced between the chair and the bed.

“Don’t think for a second I’m gonna make you take the chair,” Lucian said. He saw Callahan’s smile out of the corner of his eye, but didn’t move his eyes away from the screen.

“Want me to see if I can get us something to eat?” Callahan asked.

“That’d be great,” Lucian said. He really should have let Arden stock them up with snacks and coffee.

Callahan nodded and headed out of the room. He was gone for close to thirty minutes and Lucian began to worry, but he did eventually return and when he did he had a tray laden with two steaming bowls and two mugs.

“Got some chicken noodle soup and hot chocolate,” Callahan said.

Lucian sat up eagerly.

“Put it here,” he said, gesturing to the middle of the bed.

Callahan did as instructed. He carefully sat down on the bed as well. The soup was by no means a culinary masterpiece, but it was food and it was warm. Lucian finished it off quickly and turned to the hot chocolate. He laid back against the mound of pillows as he slowly nursed the drink. Callahan had finished his soup as well and he removed the tray and bowls from the table. He sat down on at the head of the bed as well, stretching his legs out in front of him, though he stayed above the covers.

“I emailed Morgan to let her know we’re delayed returning,” Callahan said as he placed his own mug on the bedside table.

“Thanks,” Lucian said. He took another sip of his hot chocolate before putting it on the table on his side of the bed. His body was starting to heat up rather unnaturally. He pushed the towel off his head and tossed it aside. A dull ache was developing behind his eyes.

“You okay?” Callahan asked.

Lucian only shrugged. Callahan leaned over and brought his hand up to Lucian’s face.

“May I?”

Lucian nodded and Callahan pressed the back of his hand against his forehead.

“You have a fever,” he said. “You sure you alright?”

“It’s just from the transfusion,” Lucian said, his voice heavy. “It happens. Just my body processing the blood that isn’t mine.”

“Let me know if you need anything,” Callahan said.

“I’m fine,” Lucian said with a shake of his head. He winced as pain blossomed behind his eyes.

“Are you?” Callahan asked.

“Head hurts.”

Callahan nodded and got off the bed. He fetched a bottle of painkillers from his bag and brought them to Lucian.

“Here,” he said.

Lucian held out his hand and Callahan poured two pills into his palm.

“Thanks,” Lucian said as he took the pills with his hot chocolate.

“Try to sleep, okay?” Callahan said.

“You too,” Lucian said weakly. He curled into his side.

“Want me to turn out the light?” Callahan asked.

“Yeah, but let’s keep the movie on,” Lucian said. He would have found it a touch too awkward to be in bed with Callahan with only silence surrounding them.

Callahan nodded and went to flick off the light. Once he did so, he returned to the bed. He stretched out beside Lucian, though he stayed propped up on the pillows enough to see the movie.

Lucian closed his eyes and gave a small sigh, willing himself to relax. He’d been in bed platonically like this with shifters before, though those shifters had been Merrix and Ethan, with whom he’d grown up. He didn’t have any fear that Callahan would try something in his sleep, rather the worry stemmed from the vulnerability of being asleep in another’s presence. He’d fallen asleep in the car with Callahan, though it had helped that the shifter had had to keep his focus on the road.

Despite Lucian’s relative unease, the fever soon exhausted him into sleep. When he awoke some unknown time later, it was to the feeling of someone shifting beneath him. He groaned quietly and sat up on his elbow. The warmth of another’s body permeated his own and he could feel a heartbeat beneath his hand. Lucian blinked his eyes open in confusion.

Callahan lay beneath him. Lucian’s legs were tangled around his; his arm slung over Callahan’s chest. His head had been pillowed on Callahan’s shoulder. Callahan himself  had an arm wended around Lucian’s waist and his other hand resting on the arm Lucian’ had over his chest.

Lucian sat up quickly, dislodging Callahan’s hands from his body, but the movement woke the shifter. Callahan opened his eyes and gazed blearily up at Lucian. Luican yanked his legs away from his and scooted back on the bed.

“I--my bad,” Lucian said as his cheeks flooded with color.

“It’s fine,” Callahan said as rubbed a hand over his face. He sat up slowly. “What time is it?”

“Uh--” Lucian twisted around to look at the clock on the bedside table behind him. “Eleven AM.” He should have known, he chided himself, that he would end up wrapped around Callahan like a koala. That was how it always ended up when he slept in the same bed as Merrix or Ethan. He had thought his tendency to curl against those two had been because he was so comfortable with them, but the factor was most likely that they, like Callahan, were alphas.

“Let’s see how the snow is,” Callahan said as he climbed out of bed.

Callahan was behaving like he was entirely unaffected by waking up with Lucian on him, but the tips of his ears were red with embarrassment. Lucian greatly appreciated that he wasn’t making a show out of waking up with Lucian spooning him.

Callahan crossed the room to the window and pulled the curtain aside ever so slightly so the sun rays didn’t spill into the room and harm Lucian.

“It’s more than a foot that’s for sure,” he said, “but it’s stopped.” He dropped the curtain and turned back to Lucian. “I’ll go dig out the car and we can get on the way.”

Lucian nodded and watched as he slipped out the door, once again keeping as little light from entering as possible. It took Callahan about twenty minutes to get the car cleared off, as well as the pile of snow that the plow had left behind it. If there had been a way to go about it safely, Lucian would have joined him outside, but doing so would have left him charred to a crisp.

Once Callahan was finished with the task and Lucian had checked them out of the motel, they were back on the road. They’d barely made any progress before stopping at the motel, and so it wasn’t until early evening that they were pulling through the academy gates. Callahan, who had taken over driving for the last six hours, drove them to the back of Lucian’s dormitory to drop him off. He offered to walk Lucian up to his room, but Lucian declined.

“That’s fine,” Lucian said as he climbed out of the car, hoisting his bag onto his shoulder. “Thanks for coming with me this weekend.”

“Any time,” Callahan said. “Though let’s plan better around the weather next time.”

“Yeah, that’d be a good idea,” Lucian said. “Also, Cal, what happened at Arden’s stays at Arden’s.”

“Of course,” Callahan said, “and the same goes for the motel.” He by no means spoke maliciously, or even in a teasing manner, instead being entirely earnest. Somehow that made it worse.

Lucian gritted his teeth as his face was bathed with a blush. He had to resist the urge to slam the door shut and march off. He nodded.

“Yeah, good,” Lucian said. “See you.” He shut the door and headed inside.

The weekend could have got a lot worse, he mused as he made his way up to his room. He’d never brought a shifter with him when he’d gone to see Arden. There’d never been an academy shifter he’d felt close enough. Had it not been for the fact that he wanted Callahan as his guardian then he would have gone to see Arden on his own. If Callahan hadn’t responded well to finding out Lucian sold his blood, then Lucian would have gone against continuing his pursuit of Callahan as his guardian. As it stood, Callahan remained a good choice for guardian. It helped that he had been entirely respectful of Lucian when the vampire had mentioned that fact that he’d be collared upon becoming a guardian himself. This wasn’t a subject he brought up all that often since it was one that made him decidedly uncomfortable; after all, what it boiled down to was his father was willing to sell him as a sex slave to the highest bidder. It was for this exact reason that Lucian had started selling his blood. All his father wanted out of this was money and Lucian was more than happy to comply. He would give his father millions, earning that money by any means necessary, if it meant he wouldn't have to be collared. 


	11. Chapter 11

Following the trip to Ardenwood’s, Lucian was faced with the daunting task of finishing all his midterm assignments and prepping for exams. He and Callahan had finished listening to  _ MacBeth _ on the way back to the academy, so the next aspect of that he had to tackle was the actual essay. On top of that, he had two other essays as well as two finals. Luckily the academy granted their students a reading period even before midterms, so classes became optional study sessions. Lucian wasn’t the type to get much work done around his peers and so during the reading week he opted instead for finding a secluded place in the library.

Lucian wasn’t a particularly dedicated student. He had a few too many unexcused absences than a ‘good’ student should and more often than not he needed an extension on his work. That being said, he did the work done and he always performed well on his exams. The latter was achieved through copious amounts of studying and very little sleep, but the pay off made up for this fact. 

“Lucian?”

Lucian glanced up at the sound of his name. He had been under the impression that he’d found an isolated enough place at the back of the stacks in the basement that he wouldn’t be bothered, but this seemed to not be the case. Sam, the shifter he’d met at the cottage when he’d gone to see Callahan, was standing at the end of a row of stacks with a book propped on her shoulder.

“Hey, long time no see,” she said as she walked over to the cubicle Lucian sat at. She kept her voice pitched low out of respect for the other students around. “Haven’t seen you in the dining hall the last few nights; this where you’ve been holed up?”

“Yeah, got a lot to do,” Lucian said, gesturing to the array of books strewn about the desk in front of him. 

“I won’t keep you long,” Sam said. “I just wanted to ask how your weekend away was with Callahan.” Sam was grinning down at him with a teasing glint in her eye.

“It wasn’t a romantic getaway,” Lucian muttered under his breath.

“It was in a way, though, right?” Sam said. “Weren’t you wooing him to be your guardian?”

“How did you…?” Lucian began slowly.

“I overheard a little bit of your conversation with Callahan when I was headed to my room,” Sam admitted. “Something about him being your guardian. Figured you were using the weekend to try to convince him.”

“Sort of,” Lucian said with a shrug. “I wanted another opportunity to see how we get along.”

“Things went well at Blight’s then?”

“Well, overall it was disaster,” Lucian said ruefully, “but Callahan handled himself well.” He also handled Lucian well, a thought that made his cheeks color.

“Sounds like him,” Sam said with a grin. The expression faded as she toyed absentmindedly with the book in her hand. “I don’t know if he’s talked to you about this at all, but I think he’s a bit hesitant about being a guardian. Even if he decides not to be your guardian, or you decide you don’t want him, I think it’ll help if he gets encouragement from you that even if the exam is rough, it’ll be worth it.”

“I’ll do what I can,” Lucian said with a nod. He didn’t want to get into it with Sam that his interest in Callahan’s guardianship started and ended with him being Lucian’s guardian. He did intend to do what he could to encourage Callahan to be a guardian in so far as the possibility remained that Callahan would become his. It was selfish, he wasn’t going to begin to deny it, but he didn’t have the time to devote to things he didn’t personally benefit from.

“Thanks,” Sam said with a smile. “We all just want the best for him.”

Lucian nodded as his gaze dropped back to his textbooks.

“Well, I’ll let you get back to studying,” Sam said. “Best of luck with everything.”

“Thanks,” Lucian said, nodding again.

Sam waved to him before wending her way back into the stacks. Lucian watched her disappear amongst the books before turning back to his work. The companionship she and the other shifters on staff had had him missing Ethan, Merrix, and Eden. Though there had always been an ever present tension hovering over them, they had still been the closest friends Lucian had ever had. Eden and Lucian had had to work twice as hard to be anywhere near as good as Ethan and Merrix. Growing up, both vampires had been physically weaker than the shifters, but the latter two had never thrown any punches with them, save for one instance when Ethan had attempted to go easy on Eden. For doing so, he’d been sentenced to thirty extra laps for four days. Ethan and Merrix had also been in the unfortunate position of competing with each other to see who would become Lord Samarillian’s guardian, and who would have their contract sold. Merrix, who had always despied the Samarillian household, had given nothing more than the bare minimum for this competition, no matter how hard Ethan tried to convince him otherwise. This fact had caused a severe rift in their friendship. Their relationship fractured further when Lord Samarillian chose to collar Merrix instead of selling his contract.

Despite how brutal the training had been and how often it had put the four at odds with each other, it was a rare day when Lucian didn’t find himself missing those days of constant companionship.

With a heavy sigh, Lucian pulled himself from the bitter nostalgia and refocused his attention on studying. He only managed to get another hour of it done before his mind started to wander to such an extent he was forced to call it a night. 

The next two nights played out much the same, with him engrossed in work at the back of the stacks. There were no further interruptions though, which was a blessing since he was approaching the deadlines for his essays as well as the exam dates. 

Following the submissions of his papers at noon on the last day of reading period, he was able to focus the rest of his time on exam prep. While he by no means failed either exam, he certainly had the feeling leaving both of them that he could have done worlds better than what he’d managed. He was sure he would receive passing marks though, and bombing finals notwithstanding, he would most likely pass his classes come the end of the semester.

Classes resumed normally the following night, the faculty uninterested in giving their students a much needed respite following their midterms. Lucian barely managed to stay awake for his classes, and following his last one--a remedial class with Welks since he hadn’t been required to do the second week of his sentence during reading period--Lucian made a beeline for his dorm with the intent of throwing himself in bed. He did just that, but as he was settling back against the pillows, his phone rang. Fishing it out of his pocket, he found an incoming call from an unknown number. He answered and greeted the caller with a slightly confused ‘hello.’

“Hello, Lucian, it’s Eve Pryer,” the headmistress said. 

“Oh, hi,” Lucian said. He hesitated, unsure of how to proceed given ‘what’s up’ seemed a little too informal when speaking with the headmistress, and ‘how can I help you’ assumed that she was calling for some form of his assistance.

“I’m calling with regards to the upcoming banquet being held this weekend between us and Wordorf Academy,” Pryer explained. 

Lucian knew of the one she was referring too. St. Cyprian Academy got together every semester with Wordorf Academy to show off their best and brightest. Lucian had never ranked high enough in his classes to be considered eligible for the banquet, but he had the feeling something might have changed.

“The board has decided to grant you attendance to this year’s banquet,” the headmistress explained.

“Are my grades suddenly good enough for that?” Lucian asked. By now, the results on his essays and exams would have been processed and put toward his overall grade, but he couldn’t imagine he had suddenly earned straight As.

“Oh, no, certainly not,” Pryer said. “However, Lord Vasiliev requested that you be in attendance this year and the board tends to listen to him.”

Raife Vasiliev was one of his father’s closest friends. Lucian had grown up seeing him as something of an uncle. It didn’t surprise him that Raife had chosen to throw his weight around to get Lucian a spot at the banquet, he just wished the royal had taken into consideration whether or not Lucian would actually want to attend.

“Can I fake food poisoning so someone from the waitlist can go?” 

“Unfortunately Lord Vasiliev may see through the conveniency of that and see it as an insult to the favor he’s doing you,” Pryer said. 

“It’s going to be so obvious I shouldn’t be at the banquet,” Lucian said in a quiet voice. “All the rankings are posted publicly.”

“We’re doing away with that this year,” Pryer explained. “The board finds it too easily alienated the lowest ranking students from the highest ranking ones and created cliques at the banquet.”

“That’s good at least,” Lucian murmured. Everyone at Cyprian’s would still be well aware that Lucian didn’t have the accolades to support his being at the banquet, but at least there wouldn’t be a giant bulletin board declaring his unworthiness. 

“Details regarding the banquet will be emailed to you,” Pryer continued. 

“It’s this weekend, right?” Lucian said.

“It is.”

“Well, at least there will be good food.”

“Only the best,” Pryer said, and Lucian could hear the smile enter into her matter-of-fact tone. “I will see you there Lucian.”

“Sounds good.”

Pryer hung up without further ado. Lucian sighed heavily and dropped his phone onto the bed. 

Now that Lucian wasn’t living at home, it was only occasional the times when Raife would make his presence known in Lucian’s life as the doting uncle. On his birthday and holidays mostly, and this presence took the form a check. Lucian was always quite grateful for this. Before now, Raife had only used his status once for Lucian’s sake and that was to get him into St. Cyprian’s. Since Lucian had been trained as a guardian, not much of his time had been spent on tutelage and he’d been severely behind education wise when applying to high school. Given Raife’s presence on the board, he was immediately accepted despite this fact. Pryer had been more than happy to accommodate for his severe lack of education and had packed his schedule with makeup courses. Unfortunately this had resulted in Lucian being almost completely burnt out with school come the end of his first year and his attendance had declined drastically. 

His father didn’t much care one way or the other what his marks were in school. Lord Samarillian was simply killing time until he was legally allowed to put Lucian’s contract up for auction. 

Lucian had flippantly informed Pryer of this fact when the headmistress had called him into her office sophomore year because he’d stopped attending classes. She had told him in no uncertain terms that she did not care what his father had planned for him; he had the privilege of receiving a great education and if he wanted to throw that away then she asked him to simply withdraw his enrollment. 

“Nothing is set in stone, Lucian,” she’d informed him curtly. “There is no guarantee that what your father wants for your future is what will happen.”

Lucian had already been working for four years at that point to make the money necessary to buy his own contract, but it wasn’t until that moment that he realized he’d been so caught up in buying his contract, he hadn’t stopped to consider what he’d do if he did. If he was as dumb as a fence post because he didn’t go to any of his classes, he wouldn’t get all that far in life. With this in mind, he had redoubled his efforts to do well in classes, though his attendance remained by no means perfect and he still had a tendency to turn in assignments late. 

While he was doing his best to make the most of the education he’d been granted because of Raife’s influence, he wasn’t entirely sure what he could get out of attending this banquet. Many of the board members of both St. Cyprian and Wordorf were also board members of some human universities. Though Lucian couldn’t put much focus into his plans after graduation, he sometimes entertained the idea of continuing his schooling. Had it not been for the fact that Raife would be at the banquet, Lucian could have taken the opportunity to try to get in good with some of those board members. Unfortunately he would run the risk of Raife catching wind of this fact and letting Lucian’s father know that Lucian was making plans for post-graduation life that didn’t involve becoming a guardian.

It would most likely transpire that Lucian would have to grin-and-bear his way through the banquet, much like he did all other social events where he was forced to play within the role his father and uncle had constructed for him. It wasn’t ideal and he could think of plenty ways he’d rather spend a Saturday night, but he’d done it before and he’d keep doing it until he had his contract. 

 

Lucian hooked the loose locks that framed his face behind his ears as he loped slowly down the hall. His destination was one of the private dining halls on the floor above the one where students ate. Rounding the corner at the end of the hall, he came upon the stairs, as well as Vanessa. The shifter had just reached the foot of the stairs; she paused at the sight of him. Her manicured brows lifted at the sight of Lucian and she gave the tiniest smirk. Her dark hair was wended into a braided bun atop her head and she was dressed in a sleek one piece suit. 

“Running a little late?” she said as the pair met at the foot of the stairs.

“Running exactly on the time I want to be,” Lucian shot back. This was a lie. His hair straightener had broken and he’d panicked trying to figure out what to with his hair. It had ended up in a fancy updo that would work for the occasion, but the process had costed him an extra twenty minutes. Vanessa by no means needed to know this.

The shifter shook her head and muttered a quiet ‘of course’ under her breath. Lucian ignored her and started past her up the stairs.

“You’re gonna hold him back,” she said suddenly, “if you make him your guardian.”

Lucian paused. He pivoted slightly and looked at Vanessa. They were of a height since he was a step above her. She was staring at him, though her eyes were fixed just below his own. She did an exceptionally good job of toeing the line of what was and wasn’t acceptably when speaking with a vampire.

“He can do better than you; he’s good enough to be a royal guardian,” Vanessa continued.

_ We all just want the best for him _ , Sam’s words echoed in Lucian’s head. In her own way, that was what Vanessa wanted to, and it was for that reason Lucian bit back the acidic response that had been on the tip of his tongue. Instead, he took a split second to compose himself before replying much more diplomatically than he felt Vanessa deserved.

“You’re right; he is good enough,” Lucian said, “but what he wants isn’t a high status guardianship. He wants to be the guardian of someone he works well with.”

“And you think that’s you?” Vanessa said with a derisive sneer.

“I do actually,” Lucian said, “though what matters is if Callahan thinks so; it’s Callahan’s choice after all, not ours.”

Vanessa narrowed her eyes as she continued to stare up at him. She didn’t speak for a long moment and Lucian let her process what he’d said. He shouldn’t have had to justify himself to her, but if it meant keeping her from speaking ill of him to Callahan, then he’d do it. He didn’t doubt she, Sam, and Lionel all had Callahan’s ear at the shifter’s cottage. They had a great deal more experience than Callahan and he most likely went to them for guidance.

“Just remember that,” Vanessa said in a low voice, “when he doesn’t choose to be your guardian.”

“I will,” Lucian said flatly. He spun back around and headed up the stairs. He didn’t much appreciate Vanessa’s confidence that Callahan wouldn’t choose him. As long as he didn’t behave in the same vein as he had in the library, he felt confident that he could win Callahan over. He certainly hoped he could anyway. If he did manage to win his contract, he would need to utilize everything at his disposal to rebuild his image as a noble and not the product his father had attempted to sell. Having a powerful guardian would go a long way in proving this. Callahan was exceptionally suited for this role. 

As he reached the top of the stairs and headed toward the door of the private dining hall, he pushed aside thoughts of Callahan and refocused himself on the task at hand. The door he went to was flanked by Lionel and another of the academy’s guardian. Lucian recognized her as one of the shifters who monitored his magic class, though he didn’t know her by name. Lionel nodded to him as he moved to the door and opened it for him.

“Thanks,” Lucian murmured. 

Lionel nodded again as Lucian passed inside. An array of tables were scattered throughout the large dining room. The room was filled with the fervor of conversation and the clink of silverware. Lucian’s eyes flitted around the room, looking for one person in particular. At the back of the room was a long table where both boards mingled together with a few members of faculty. Lucian found Raife immediately. He struck an awe-inspiring and somewhat intimidating form at the far end of the table where he sat with Eve Pryer and Wordorf’s head. At six feet, Raife was easily the tallest vampire in the room. His face was rigidly chiseled and exceptionally handsome. Dark black hair framed it in easy waves. His eyes were a piercing blue. Raife had single-handedly defined Lucian’s sexuality growing up, a fact Lucian was incredibly embarrassed of given he saw the man as his uncle. Lucian had never crushed on Raif by any means, but the man was the pinnacle of Lucian’s type and without a doubt the reason why he found guys like Callahan so attractive.

“Are you looking for your seat?” 

Lucian turned at the sound of the hesitant voice. A young vampire stood beside him with a tray of drinks in hand. He was dressed in a subdued outfit of black and white, the uniform of the wait staff. He was most likely one of the students of non-nobility who took up work at the academy for some extra money. 

“Uh, yes,” Lucian said.

“Follow me,” the boy said with a smile. He led the way through the tables to an empty seat at one of the tables in the back corner. “Here you are,” he said, waving to the plaque in front of the table setting that declared Lucian’s name. 

Lucian thanked him and took a seat at his assigned spot. His arrival had brought about a lull in conversation at his table and he found himself being assessed by the other occupants. Only two of them he recognized as being from his school. Both were seniors and both were looking him with identical expressions of repugnance. They were twins so the identicalness was quite literal, and a touch unnerving. 

“How good of you to join us, Lucian,” one of the twins said, his voice laced with the same emotion as his expression. 

Lucian only rolled his eyes as he pulled his napkin into his lap. It was going to be a long meal, he could already tell. 

“You missed the introductions,” one of the Wordorf students said. “I’m Henry Beckett.” He was leaning forward, elbow on the table and chin in his hand. There was a nonchalant arrogance to him and he spoke his name like someone self-assured in his repute. Lucian had heard of the Beckett name though for a reason he doubted Henry would like. He was rather surprised Henry would introduce himself with his surname all things considered. “I’m ranked seventh at Wordorf. And you?”

Lucian sighed. They might have done away with the bulletin displaying the rankings, but clearly the need to assert superiority through ranking had not died out this year. 

“Lucian is ranked fifty-eighth in the junior class,” the other twin said. She took way too much delight in declaring this fact to the table. 

Lucian picked up the champagne glass by his plate and inclined it toward with a sycophantic smile before taking a long sip.

“Fifty-eighth,” Henry said with a slow whistle. “Who did you fuck to get a seat here?”

“Raife Vasiliev,” the male twin said, sneering.

“No,” Lucian snapped. “Raife is family, and I don’t fuck family.” He drilled Henry with a long stare. “That’s a Beckett practice.”

Silence descended on the table. Lucian didn’t doubt everyone had been thinking of the Beckett scandal that involved Henry’s older brother and sister, but no one had made mention of it until now.

A long shudder of rage ran over Henry and suddenly he jerked forward, like he was going to throw himself across the table at Lucian, but his friend, who sat beside him, grabbed his arm and yanked him back. The guy hissed something into Henry’s ear. Henry’s lip curled back. He yanked his arm free of his friend’s grip, but he didn’t make a move beyond that.

Lucian turned his attention to his appetizers, feeling decidedly satisfied that he’d killed that line of dialogue. Conversation started up around him once more though it was stilted and remained in the safe vein of small talk. No one spoke to Lucian, who was quite alright with that. He pulled out his phone and took to texting Myrna a gossipy ‘guess who I’m sitting with.’ Myrna was always up to date on the rumors that circulated the vampiric world and the tale of the Beckett siblings getting walked in on was renowned. Lucian would have felt a bit bad for Henry being dragged into an unfavorable and unforgiving limelight if he hadn’t opted for being such a jackass. 

The meal dragged on with Lucian favoring the company of his phone to those around him. When the final course had been cleared away, Eve Pryer and the Wordorf headmaster rose to make a few remarks at the podium that stood off to the side of their table. Following that, Pryer urged the attendees to gather in the adjacent room for cocktails and desserts. The scrape of chairs filled the room as the guest rose to do just that.

Lucian pushed out of his chair and slipped to the edge of the room to make for the door he’d entered through. He ducked out of it and headed for the restroom to relax before tackling the next half of the evening. He washed his hands slowly under cold water. He wished he could splash his face as well, but didn’t want to mess up his makeup. He was decidedly less gaunt than he had been prior to feeding on the sanguine, so the makeup wasn’t necessary to hide this fact, but all the same, he enjoyed putting it on. In a way, it also felt like one more layer of defense between him and everyone else. 

After a few more minutes of idling in the bathroom, he headed into the room beside the dining hall. Standing height tables littered the room and students, faculty, and board members all milled together around the room. It was easy enough spotting Raife in the crowd, given his height. Lucian made his way toward the man. Reaching him, he found Raife in conversation with two of Wordorf’s faculty members. Lucian approached slowly.

“Excuse me?” He rested a hand on Raife’s elbow. The act had one of the women’s eyes bugging out in surprise at his boldness. She was clearly unaware of who he was to Raife.

Raife turned. A smile broke out across his face as he looked down at Lucian.

“Lucian, you look lovely.” He pulled the younger vampire against his side with a strong arm around shoulders.

Lucian wound his arm around Raife’s waist to return the embrace, but he didn’t let himself sink too much into, far too conscious of his actions being monitored by those around them. Raife pulled back and turned to look to the two women he’d been speaking with.

“This is my friend’s son,” he explained. “He’s something of a nephew to me.” He spoke with a genuine fondness that had Lucian flushing. 

“Hi, I’m Lucian,” he said, extending his hand to the two women.

The one who’d been utterly scandalized by his touching Raife had quickly adopted a smile and both women greeted Lucian with all the kindness and respect a pseudo nephew of Raife deserved. 

The four of them chatted for some time, the women curious of what Lucian was studying. Raife let him field this queries, having absolutely no idea what Lucian was doing with his time in school. The teachers were hardly tacky enough to ask Lucian’s ranking, doing him the courtesy instead of assuming he’d earned his position at the banquet by nature of his own accomplishments. When asked about his plans following graduation, Lucian faltered almost long enough for things to grow awkward, but Raife swiftly jumped in to say that things were still up in the air. Conversation tapered out after that and the teachers excused themselves, leaving Lucian alone with Raife.

“Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be here,” Lucian said as he swiveled slowly to face his uncle. “I was wondering why though. I’m really not academically inclined.”

“It gives your father and I the opportunity to show you off,” Raife explained with that easy grin of his as he laid his hand on Lucian’s shoulder. “Many members of both boards are royals like myself, and could very well be interested in having you as a guardian. Here, they can see you with their own eyes. I can’t imagine they’ll be disappointed.”

Lucian swallowed and nodded. It came as no real surprise to him that his father had had a hand in having him attend this event. The fact that he was here in the capacity of a product certainly sent his stomach into knots. 

“Let me introduce to some of them,” Raife continued.

Thus launched a night of Raife ferrying Lucian around the hall to be ogled and admired by the older man’s peers. No mention was made at any point of Lucian’s potentially being a vampire guardian for any of the men and women present. Instead, he was introduced simply as Raife’s nephew. Lucian nodded and smiled; he played coy with the men and women alike, knowing full well either gender often appreciated his looks. In sum, he played along with Raife exactly as he’d been trained to: to be as utterly and irrevocably desirable as he could. 

When they had completed making the rounds, Raife sent him on his way. He smiled, rubbed his lower back, and told Lucian he’d done well. The praise shouldn’t have filled Lucian’s chest with quite as much warmth as it did considering he was being praised for whoring himself out. All the same, it came from Raife, and Lucian had grown up doing his utmost to please the man. 

He ducked his head, bid Raife a good night, and hurried off. As far as he was concerned, he’d paid his dues for the night. He wended hastily through the throngs of people, feeling the palpable grip of panic rising in his chest, suffocating the warmth left from Raife’s words. In one fell swoop the crowd felt too much, too loud, pressing in around him, making his heart marathon in his chest. 

He shoved his way out the door and hastened to the steps. He could feel the eyes of Lionel and the other shifter on him, the weight of them making the hairs on his neck prickle. He stumbled quickly down the stairs to the first floor. The sooner he got a hold of his contract the better. He needed the next year to earn as much as he could, but at the same time his graduation couldn’t come soon enough. To be able to go through his life not as his father’s product but as his own person; that was not an experience he’d ever had, but he’d been dying for that day for the last eighteen years.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the writer's block has been strrrooonnnnggggg of late and getting this chapter out was rough

It was customary for Lucian to spend every school break with his father, either at their home in Detroit or at one of the many resorts vampire nobles frequented around the country. The latter was the destination for Lucian’s fall break, which followed close on the heels of the certified debacle that was the academic dinner. 

Lucian had managed to get himself back to his dorm without having a full down meltdown, though he had proceeded to do just that under the hot stream of the shower. For the most part he had things enough in hand that he wasn’t overwhelmed by how messed up his life was. That being said, it was one thing for his father to lead him around like a prized cow at auction, and something else entirely for Raife do just that. Raife had always been a pinnacle of security in Lucian’s childhood; he had never overtly played a hand in the plan for Lucian to become a guardian. Because of this, Lucian had naively labeled him as something of an ally. The dinner had certainly dashed all concept of this being the case. In a way, it would be a relief to have to deal with his father for the fall break. Lucian knew exactly where he stood with Lord Samarillian and had never developed a misconception about him.

Lucian’s invitation to the long weekend away at a ski resort in Colorado came to him via text from his father. His father also informed him that he expected Callahan to be present as Lucian’s bodyguard. Lucian was happy to comply with this since it would give him and Callahan another opportunity to test their compatibility as vampire and guardian. He did not, however, much like what his father’s motivation behind having Callahan there was. In all likelihood Lord Samarillian wanted to get another look at the shifter he hoped to collar, if Lucian didn’t secure Callahan’s guardianship. It was typical for a noble like Lucian’s father to have multiple collared shifters. Currently, his only collar was Merrix. It would be a benefit to Merrix if Lord Samarillian collared another shifter, but Lucian couldn’t in good conscious let that be Callahan. If it was shifter he didn’t know, then he could have turned a blind eye.

Considering the fiasco, not even including the sanguine attack, that had occurred at Blight’s estate, Lucian didn’t imagine Callahan would jump at the chance to be his bodyguard at another public event. With this being the case, Lucian took it upon himself to ask Callahan instead of leaving it up to Pryer. Despite Callahan not really having a choice in the matter since Lord Samarillian had already made up his mind, Lucian still wanted to show the shifter that  _ he _ wanted Callahan there as his bodyguard; that this was different from Blight’s party and Lucian wasn’t begrudgingly going along with his father’s decisions. With this being the case, Lucian emailed the headmistress, asking her, if his father had reached out to her about Callahan being his bodyguard, that she leave it to him to ask Callahan. 

Lucian was a touch concerned about how well asking Callahan to be his bodyguard would go over. Upon Callahan greeting him at the door of the shifter cottage, Lucian realized his skittishness for the most part had to do with the fact the pair had imprinted on one another during Callahan’s heat. However, once he was in close proximity to Callahan he noted that the imprinting had faded at that point, and with it the residual tension he’d experienced in Callahan’s presence. This fact put Lucian at considerable ease since it meant neither he nor Callahan would have their judgement clouded by instincts, making their relationship strictly professional.

Lucian felt confident of this fact until he found himself seated in first class beside Callahan. His father was footing the bill to get him to Colorado, whereas the Academy took care of Callahan’s air fare. If this hadn’t been the case, Lucian would have stuck himself in economy, still with Callahan since he had to be close to Lucian at all times as his bodyguard. And close was he. Lucian had already knocked elbows with him twice on the armrest between them. He didn’t want to make it abundantly obvious how aware he was of their nearness, so he refrained from plastering himself against the wall of the plane. 

Lucian soon realized as he let himself settle into his seat, tablet propped on his knees and headphones over his ears, that he wasn’t put off so much by the discomfort of being close to Callahan, rather by the  _ comfort _ he felt being with him. There were a spare few with whom Lucian felt physically comfort enough to allow a careless elbow brush to become prolonged. Lucian didn’t have the same lengthy history with Callahan that he had with Myrna or Eden, with Merrix or Ethan, so he couldn’t understand where this ease came from. Granted, his ease with his three male friends had dissipated given the change in their social dynamics, but growing up it had certainly been there.

Perhaps it was due to the car ride, where he’d opened up to Callahan about aspects of his life he didn’t typically talk about. Perhaps doing so welcomed this newfound physical comfort. 

Whatever the reason, Lucian did his best to push these thoughts from his mind in favor of focusing on the movie on his tablet. He’d have plenty of time to deconstruct where things stood with Callahan over the next four days, though that time would also be interspersed with attempting to endure being stuck with both his father and a whole slew of noble vampires.

The first trial of the weekend, a luncheon for the host to welcome his guests, was set to begin only a few hours after touching down in the dead of night in Colorado Springs. It didn’t help that Hemsworth’s ski resort was two hours from the airport. Because of this, Lucian was forced to change out of his plane clothes and do his makeup in the back of the rental while Callahan drove them to their destination. 

The affair itself wasn’t as grueling as Lucian had anticipated it would be. Seeing his father again sent his stomach into knots, but for once Lord Samarillian actually seemed pleased to see him. Lucian chalked that up to his performance on Raife’s arm the other night. This fact did little to subside the disgust in the back of his throat. 

As was traditional for the pair, Lord Samarillian took his son with him to greet the host before allowing Lucian to do with his time what he would. Lucian milled around the buffet-style luncheon for about forty-five minutes before calling it quits and heading to the lobby to get the keys for his and Callahan’s room. 

A bellhop brought the pair to their room, where their luggage had already been delivered, and wished them a nice stay before departing. Lucian made a beeline for the plush couch that stood in front of the fireplace and threw himself face first onto it. 

Much like he had when they’d first arrived at their rooms at Blight’s, Callahan did a cursory walkthrough of the all the rooms before returning to the living room. He took to gazing around the room for a moment, at a loss for what to do. Lucian watched him, taken with how much like a lost puppy he looked, before taking pity on him and speaking up.

“You don’t have to stay with me every second of the night,” he said. He sat up on his knees and draped his chest over the back of the couch. “There’s a gym by the lobby; hell, you could even go ski if you want.”

“I shouldn’t go that far from you,” Callahan said, glancing down at Lucian. 

“You could if you wanted,” Lucian said with a shrug. He dropped back onto the couch and stared at the ceiling. “It’s safe to say I won’t be leaving here until I absolutely have to.”

Callahan crossed to the couch so he could look down at Lucian. 

“I suppose I could walk around the resort to get a lay of the land,” Callahan mused.

Lucian hummed in agreement. 

Callahan opened his mouth to say something else, but he faltered. Lucian cocked his head to the side, gazing up at him. Callahan had his eyes fixed on the arm of the couch Lucian’s feet were nestled against. 

“Penny for your thoughts?” Lucian said. He sat up on his elbows.

“The other night, at that dinner, Vanessa said she saw you leaving early,” Callahan said. His voice was pitched in that quiet manner he adopted when he was on the verge of asking Lucian a possibly prying question. “She said you looked upset. Did something happen that night?” Callahan pulled his gaze over to meet Lucian’s eyes.

“She cared enough to mention that to you?” Lucian said derisively. 

“Honestly, she brought it up because she was surprised you had the emotional capacity to be upset,” Callahan said. He softened the comment with a small smile, one that warmed Lucian’s cheeks. 

“I’d prefer if she still thought that I didn’t,” Lucian muttered.

“Did something happen?” Callahan asked again, his voice gentle. 

Lucian opened his mouth to answer, but clamped it shut once more. He’d been on the verge of answering with honesty, a fact that stunned him. It hadn’t been all that long since he would have snapped at Callahan for his presumption in asking such a question. Something really had shifted about his perspective on the dynamic between himself and Callahan. He couldn’t say he liked it all that much. At the same time the urge to open up to Callahan still pressed inside of him. 

“Just got overwhelmed,” Lucian said. He sat up, drawing his knee to his chest. He hoped the motions weren’t read as him cordoning himself off from Callahan, though he was doing exactly that. 

“This weekend if something comes up that has you feeling this way, just know I’m here if you need to talk,” Callahan said.

Lucian found himself holding his tongue once again, this time on his instinct to shut down any thoughts Callahan had that they could be friendly like that. Lucian  _ wanted _ Callahan to think of them as being close; that was the best way to get him to agree to be Lucian’s guardian. Lucian had truly managed to work himself between a rock and a hard place where Callahan was concerned. On the one hand, Lucian had no desire to open up to someone he’d barely known  for a few months; on the other hand, doing so would earn Callahan’s trust, which in turn could convince Callahan to be his guardian.

“Okay,” Lucian said falteringly. This short response neither pushed Callahan away, nor let him pull closer. It was a fragile middle ground that Lucian knew he couldn’t stay in for long.

“You need anything while I’m out?” Callahan asked, blessedly shifting the conversation away from such a difficult subject for Lucian to handle.   
“I’m good,” Lucian said with a shake of his head.

“Text me if you do.”

Lucian nodded. He watched Callahan head out of the room and continued to stare blankly at the door long after it had shut behind the shifter. In that moment, he couldn’t quite work out if making himself a suitable candidate as Callahan’s charge was worth how vulnerable that would make him.

* * *

From an entirely aesthetic standpoint, Lord Hemsworth’s ski lodge was exceptionally lovely. Dark oak was carved into ornate columns down long halls carpeted in blues and gold; hunting trophies adorned the walls at even intervals; fires roared in giants hearths in the public sitting rooms scattered throughout the resort, as well as the lobby. If the resort itself hadn’t been filled with noble vampires, Callahan might have been able to relax as he walked down the halls. As it stood, he found himself doing the exact opposite. Every time he crossed paths with a noble, his body stiffened as he stepped to the side to let them pass. His solitary presence drew many a curious eye, and he realized, if he had been with Lucian, he wouldn’t have been nearly on edge as he was. Lucian would have given him a reason, a purpose, an  _ excuse _ for walking the halls. Without him, Callahan had none of those.

Because of this discomfort, Callahan cut his self-guided tour of the resort short and head back to his and Lucian’s rooms. Upon returning, he found Lucian on the couch where he’d left him, though he was sound asleep. He was curled on his side with one of the couch pillows pinned between his knees. His hair cascaded over his face in shoulders, having been released from the braided bun he’d had it in for the luncheon. Callahan moved to the couch. He took the throw that was folded over the back of the couch and draped it over Lucian’s delicate frame.

Callahan by no means minded being Lucian’s bodyguard, not after their rather pleasant trip together to Ardenwood’s. He and Lucian had decidedly gotten off on the wrong foot, but the more they spent time together, the more Callahan felt they were moving past that. Lucian hadn’t opened up to him since that trip, and Callahan doubted he would any time soon unless they found themselves isolated like that again. At the very least Lucian hadn’t bit Callahan’s head off for asking a personal question, like he’d been prone to do before. Callahan appreciated the effort Lucian was putting in to being less aggressively confrontational with Callahan. 

Callahan turned from the couch, collected his bag, and headed into the smaller of the two bedrooms in their suite. He turned in early, the exhaustion from the traveling and attending the luncheon having caught up with him. Despite this being the case, he still awoke early in the evening, as was typical of his sleep cycle. At the academy, it was customary for him to hit the gym right when he awoke. Given that Lucian had granted him permission to just that yesterday morning, Callahan figured it wouldn’t be an issue. It was also seven in the evening and Lucian was still asleep on the couch when Callahan headed into the sitting room, dressed for the gym. He doubted Lucian would awake for several more hours, and by then he’d be back from his workout. All the same, Callahan sent the vampire a text explaining where he’d be on the off chance Lucian did wake up before he returned.

On his way down to the gym, which was situated beside the lobby, Callahan only encountered housekeeping, whom he gave small nods of greeting to as he passed. The gym itself was occupied by a few other guardians. Callahan pulled on his headphones and set about his routine. 

About an hour into his workout, as he was pressing a lightly weighted bar, a familiar voice filtered through the music that was playing in his headphones.

“Shouldn’t you have a spotter?”

Callahan racked on the bar. He didn’t have to crane his neck as Lucian stepped into his field of vision. The vampire braced his forearms against the bar and dropped his head between them. Lucian’s hair was tied back from his face. If it hadn’t been, it would have brushed Callahan’s face the way the vampire was positioned above.

“I didn’t need a spot when the weight’s this light,” Callahan explained. He slid off his headphones as he remained lying on the bench.

“And why’s it so light?” Lucian asked. “Feeling lazy?”

“I wouldn’t be much use to you if my arms were jello,” Callahan pointed out. He reached up and caught ahold of the bar on either side of Lucian’s arms.

Lucian took this as his cue to step back. He straightened, though he kept his hands resting lightly on the bar. Callahan pulled the bar off the rack and initiated another set. Lucian watched him pump out four reps. As Callahan began the ascent on the fourth, the vampire pushed his hands down on the bar.

“Whatcha doing?” Callahan grunted. 

“Resistance training,” Lucian said with a smile. 

Callahan rolled his eyes, but he didn’t insist that Lucian stop. He extended his arms completely even given Lucian’s added weight. He lowered the bar again and Lucian added more resistance, pushing up on his tiptoes to put almost his full weight on the bar. Callahan managed a rep with all of Lucian’s bodyweight in addition what was already on the bar, but halfway through the second rep like this, he faltered. 

“Lu,” he grunted.

Lucian dropped back on his heels. He grabbed the bar in one hand and, with a pop of his hips to give himself momentum, racked the bar. Callahan raised his brows as he let his arms drop, his hands brushing the ground. 

“That was two-hundred and fifty pounds you just racked,” he said.

“I make a good spotter,” Lucian said as he folded his hands loosely on the bar. “Do you have more to do or can we go to breakfast?”

“We can go,” Callahan said, sitting up. “I should change though if you’re meeting someone.”

“Just us,” Lucian said with a shake of his head. “So you’re fine as is, and no rush if you’ve got more to do.” 

“This was the last thing I had planned,” Callahan said. That wasn't the case; he had planned to do a bit of cardio to finish off the workout, but he didn't want to make Lucian wait around for him.

Lucian nodded and he set up helped Callahan put back the plates he’d weighted the bar with. Callahan grabbed a towel and stopped by the restroom before they head out so he could splash some water on his face and dry himself off. He tossed the towel in the basket under the sink and left the restroom. Lucian pushed away from the wall where’d he’d been draped and started off down the hall. 

“What’s the plan for today?” Callahan asked as he followed after him. 

“Breakfast, then we can do whatever we like for the night. I’m having dinner with my father and some of his friends at seven.” Lucian’s voice was tight with tension as he admitted this fact. “Unless I come down with a bad case of food poisoning after breakfast,” he added under his breath. 

Callahan cast Lucian a sympathetic smile, though the vampire couldn’t see the expression. If he’d been able to, Callahan wouldn't have emoted in such a way. He highly doubted Lucian wanted any amount of sympathy, despite how twisted his situation was.

Lucian rounded the corner at the end of the hall and promptly bumped shoulders with someone. 

“Excuse me,” he said hastily as he stumbled backward, but the man he’d crashed into caught his hips and held him place.

Callahan stepped forward, but he couldn’t do anything about the man holding onto Lucian, a fact he absolutely detested. The man Lucian had crashed into was a vampire, and a lord no doubt given he had a guardian on his heels. He had a broad but angled face. Dark hair was slicked back from his face with a touch of gray in the temples. He smiled down at Lucian as he continued to grip the smaller vampires hips.

“Hello there,” he said in a low voice. 

Lucian stiffened so quickly it was as if his spine had been replaced with a rod. His hands tightened into his fists at his hips, but he didn’t back a move to dislodge the man’s grip.

“I recognize your smell,” the lord continued. He leaned forward until he was barely an inch from Lucian’s neck. He breathed in deeply, a fact that set Lucian’s fists to trembling. “Yes, it’s you.” The lord straightened and a grin split his face. “I buy your blood.”


End file.
